5:00
by Poptart22
Summary: What started off as an innocent trip to the grocery store ends up turning Ezra's life upside down. (New update, finally!)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own PLL (sadly)**

Ezra Fitz slowly walked down the grocery store aisles, weaving in and out, absent-mindedly grabbing things as he went. The entire day he'd felt like he was in a trance, but not without good reason. It had been five years since she'd left. Not a phone call, text, email; not even a happy birthday in five years. Not for a lack of trying though. Ezra had tried to get in contact with her every so often, but no matter what, his phone call went to the answering machine, his text was ignored, his email deleted. Five long years since Ezra Fitz had last seen Aria Montgomery, when she headed off to university.

Ezra wasn't ashamed to say that Aria broke his heart. It was true; he'd never really gotten over her. Sure he'd gone on dates, but none of the girls he'd gone out with were _her. _Nothing seemed right after Aria. Each girl he managed to pick out something that was wrong that was a deal breaker. It was shitty; he was sure they were good people, but he couldn't do it.

Leaning his cart to the left, Ezra turned into the cereal aisle. Cereal was easy. Bowl, milk, spoon, done. Today he didn't feel like complicated. Approaching the Cheerios, Ezra stopped abruptly, as he heard a scream.

"Stop! I'm sitting here."

Ezra peered around his cart, and sitting on the side of the aisle was a small boy; he had dark brown hair, large, brilliant blue eyes and freckles dotting his face. Ezra looked up and down the aisle; he and the young boy were the only two people in it.

"Sorry buddy! Hey, where's your mom?"

"I lost her!" the little boy wailed, "Momma's gonna be so mad…"

Ezra sighed, and ran a hand nervously through his hair. He couldn't just leave the kid there, what if something happened to him?

"I'll stay with you until you find your mom, okay? What's your name, buddy?" Ezra asked, as he pulled his cart to the side of the aisle, and sat down next to the boy.

"James-William, but my friends just call me James. I'm this many years old." He held up four fingers to Ezra.

"Nice to meet you James, I'm Ezra. And wow, you're four! You're a big boy now, right?"

James nodded. "Mmmhmm! That's why I thought I'd get the Froot Loops for Momma. But now she's gone! Auntie Nan said she was gonna get me a new Hot Wheels today… Now I don't think she will." His face fell slightly as he sunk back against the cereals. Sighing, he pulled a bright green car out of his jacket pocket, and rolled it around the ground.

Ezra looked down the aisle; James' mother had to be nearby, panicking even. He examined the child in front of him. He seemed rather small for his age, but still had round cheeks. He wasn't lanky per se, but wasn't chubby either.

He tried to visualise what the boy's mother would look like, tried to pick out features in women passing by the end of the aisles.

"James, what does your mom look like? Maybe I'll be able to see her coming."

"Well, Momma is the most prettiest mom in the whooolee world." As he said this, James stretched his arms out, as if that was going to help Ezra find her.

"I'm sure she is buddy, but what does she look like?" Ezra let out a small chuckle, marvelling at the innocence of childhood.

"Well. She's got, y'know. Hair. And eyes. But her hair is like mine! But that's it." James continued to fixate himself on the small car in front of him. For a four year old, he was awfully well spoken. Each word was said with conviction.

"Well James, we're going to sit tight here. If we stay in one spot, it's more likely she'll find you." Out of habit, Ezra checked his phone. 4:58. His stomach knotted. Something didn't feel right, the whole situation was unsettling.

James was running his car along the cereal boxes, lost in his own world. There was no panic in his features, which surprised Ezra.

"Could we go on an adventure to find Momma? She reads me stories about how people go on quests can save the princess. I'd like that." James looked to Ezra with wide eyes. "Please please? I love adventures."

"Sorry buddy, but we're gonna sit here. It'll make you easier to find."

James crossed his arms, furrowing his eyebrows. It was the most determined pout Ezra had ever seen, he had to stop himself from laughing.

"Ezra," he drew out Ezra's name, questioning. "Can you tell me a story? Momma always tells me stories when I'm scared." For the first time he sounded like a little kid. Timid, like he was afraid to admit that he was scared. The moment he said this, James accidentally let go of his green car, sending it flying across the aisle.

"Sure buddy. Let me grab that for you first." Ezra slowly stood up, stretching as he did. Crossing the aisle, he whipped out his phone again. 5:00. As he bent down to pick up the miniature car, he heard small footsteps gallop down the aisle.

"MOMMA!"

Ezra turned just in time to see a petite woman pick up the boy and spin him around. Ezra took a hesitant couple of steps. He decided not to introduce himself until the woman acknowledged him. She'd just lost her son, no need to intrude.

"James William Fitz, where have you been?! I have been worried sick about you! I told you to stay by the cart, no matter what. You see what happens when you wander?"

A million thoughts went through Ezra's mind at that moment. The woman's voice. Just how familiar James looked to him. Fitz. The only thought that could register through his mind was _'Oh god. Let this be a coincidence. A crazy coincidence.' _The only thing was that Ezra already knew that this wasn't a coincidence. He knew exactly what the universe had just thrown upon him. The pieces began to fall into place.

Ezra quickly snapped back into reality to catch the tail end of the woman's scolding to her son.

James had tears streaming down his face, and the only thing he could stutter out was about Ezra. "But Momma, I wasn't alone. Ezra made sure I was safe. He waited with me." The little boy pointed a small finger past his mom, pointing directly at Ezra.

At hearing the familiar name, the woman turned around faster than Ezra would've thought possible. Seeing the face of James' mom sent a shock through his system, and he dropped the small green car that was in his left hand.

After not seeing her for five years, the first words he managed to spit out were all too familiar. "Holy crap."

Standing face to face with him was the love of his life, Aria Montgomery.


	2. Chapter 2

Ezra watched as Aria put James down; she looked exactly like he felt. The colour drained from her face and her words seem to shake with uncertainty.

Aria bent down, leveling with her son. "James, Auntie Hanna bought you a new Hot Wheels! Do you want to do me a favour and go see it?" Her eyes flitted to Ezra quickly before looking back to James.

"Well duh Momma, I've been waiting all morning to see which one it is!" James responded happily, taking off down the aisle without a care in the world.

"James William Fitz! Do you not remember what just happened? No running off by yourself!" Aria quickly ran after him, escorting him to the end of the aisle where she stopped and conversed with someone out of sight. Hanna probably.

It felt like an eternity as she walked back.

Each step seemed to take an eternity as Ezra watched her walk back towards him. He couldn't have moved if he tried; his feet seemed rooted into the ground.

A million thoughts were flying through Ezra's mind. _Oh my god. Aria. What do I say? I have a son. Don't be ridiculous, he might not be yours. Of course he's yours. She's just as beautiful as the day she left. What do I say?_ In the moments that followed which seemed to take up an eternity, he and Aria were finally together after five years. Five long years, and the first time they saw each other was not under the best of circumstances.

"We need to talk." Was the only think that Ezra managed to choke out.

"Can we talk sometime else Ezra? We're in the middle of a grocery store." Aria turned slightly, as if she was about to walk away. Gently as he could, Ezra grabbed her arm.

"Don't. Don't walk away from me again. Here's as good a place as any, and here I know you won't run off again without an explanation." He tried to keep calm, but there was a slight edge in Ezra's voice. As the words came out, he could see the pain in Aria's eyes.

He very well knew it was a low blow, but he felt no remorse. His words hadn't caused her nearly as much pain as she had caused him. She stood there, silent.

"Five years Aria. Five. Do you have any idea how bad things got for me after you left?" He tried to keep his temper in control, keep his voice down. But as hard as Ezra tried, he couldn't. "I tried to contact you, but somehow the message just never got through. How could you do that to me? After everything we'd been through, everything we'd fought for? And I can tell you right now that just by looking at James that-" The words got caught in his throat. "It's no coincidence that his last name..."

His sentence trailed off. She knew what he was trying to say.

Sure there was probably a better way to word things; Ezra had even spent countless nights thinking of what he was going to say to her once he saw her again. This was definitely not it.

Aria had tears brimming in her eyes. "Don't call him by his first name. You don't even know him."

"Yeah, well I wonder whose fault that is." He spat.

"Ezra, stop please." Tears were freely falling down Aria's face. "You don't think I regret this? You don't think that every time I look into his eyes I'm reminded of how I left you? You don't think that every day I think about the decisions I've made?"

"Think about them? I'm glad you've thought about them. I'm glad you kept my s- James away from me. Four years, Aria. James is four. How could you?" His voice broke on the last word.

Ezra always imagined his reunion with Aria to be happy; for them to run into each other's arms, fall in love all over again at first glance.

He never expected to feel like... like _this _towards her.

In the seconds of silence that followed, Ezra noticed that people that had started to turn down the cereal aisle had noticed the pair of them, and skipped it. At least they could talk about this in semi privacy. There was a shallow breath from Aria before she continued.

"How was it going to look? Eighteen year old knocked up with her ex-English teacher's baby? That's gonna look good on a resume. 'Student-teacher relationship' is not exactly something you brag about in an interview, Ezra!" The tears streamed down her face, tiny smudges of mascara formed underneath her lash line.

His brain was running a thousand miles a minute; there were so many emotions competing with one another.

He darkened. "I would've stood by your side every step of the way. I would've given up everything to help you."

"And that's the problem. I couldn't do that to you. Not when you were starting a new job, not at eighteen, not with all the allegations that were already surrounding us. If I could take it back, I would."

"Take it back." He scoffed. "You could've fixed your mistake any time you wanted. What about the ignored calls, texts and emails? You could've told me then!"

"What am I supposed to say to you? Surprise, here's your son?" Aria fell silent for a moment, and her words were barely a whisper. "I was afraid you'd be mad."

Mad.

Mad was an understatement.

"You should not have taken this choice away from me Aria. You shouldn't have taken it away from-"

"James." Aria breathed.

He saw her son- their son- walk down the aisle.

"Momma, please don't be mad. Ezra was helping me. He's super nice. I like him. He was gonna tell me a story." James walked over to Ezra and gave him a small hug by latching on to Ezra's leg.

Aria gasped. Generally James was a bit shy around adults. She ruffled his hair, trying to push back tears. "James honey, go back to the cart and play with your Hot Wheels. Maybe Auntie Hanna will wanna play with you. I'll be there in a couple minutes."

James sighed and dramatically stomped off, muttering to himself. "All she wants to do is text Uncle Caleb."

"Good boy, I love you." Aria called after him.

"Love you."

For some reason, the words bothered Ezra.

Jealous.

He didn't even know the kid, and he was jealous of what they'd never had. He was jealous that in some alternate universe, he and Aria had raised him together. In another universe, he hadn't been walking down the cereal aisle, still moping about the woman who broke his heart five years after the fact.

"I would've been mad, just like I'm mad now." Ezra took a breath before continuing. "I'm mad Aria, like I haven't been in a long time. Think of what would've happened had you not hidden him from me. I would've been there to see him, hold him for the first time. When he took his first steps, or said his first words. Those are moments that I can't get back."

Aria completely broke down at that moment, bawling her eyes out in the middle of the cereal aisle. Seeing her upset like that triggered the old instinct. Slowly, he stepped forward and tentatively put a hand on her back, rubbing it in small circles like he knew she liked.

In the first few moments, he expected her to pull away, be appalled that he would try to comfort her like he did so many years ago. But she didn't, and they ended up standing in the middle of the aisle for a good couple of minutes.

Ezra stood there, trying to soothe her. This was not how he was expecting his day to turn out. A question was burning in the back of his mind, but he wasn't sure if this was the time to ask. _I guess now's as good a time as any._

Ezra leaned back to look at her tear stained face. His other hand shakily made its way to her cheek and brushed the last remaining tear away.

"Don't do that."

Ezra stepped back, confused. "What?"

"Pretend like you still care." She spat.

Still care? The words were a mockery.

If he still cared. Like he didn't spend every labour day moping around the house, or how he had to skip over every Fray song on his iPod, but he still refused to delete the album. Or how he had to switch to a new Chinese place, but still kept all of the old menus on his fridge, just in case. If he still cared, he wouldn't occasionally type out an email, just talking about his day and close the window before he could talk himself into hitting send. If he still cared, he'd delete her number, and he wouldn't go past her old house every once in a while just as a subtle reminder of once was.

If he still cared, his heart would be pounding at the thought of seeing her again.

And it was.

"But I still do." He admitted.

Aria let go and sniffled, wiping the mascara that had gathered under her eyes away, and let out a small laugh. "We haven't spoken in five years. You just found out you have a son! You can't honestly tell me you still feel the same."

"The feeling I got when I saw you again; it's the most alive I've felt in five years. It felt like for a moment, none of this happened, that we were still together, happy." The words just came tumbling out before Ezra realized the position he'd put Aria in. "I'm... sorry. That just came out before I thought about it. No need to say anything if you're uncomfortable with it."

They stood there, their conversation stuck at a standstill.

He was still angry, but his blood no longer felt like it was on fire. Just standing across from her, seeing that Aria was right across from him was almost a cure. For once, there was a small glimmer of hope.

"Ezra?" She said quietly, crossing her arms uncomfortably. "You can see what you missed in his life. I kept a video camera on him practically twenty four seven." Aria murmured.

"Here give me your hand." Ezra complied silently. He watched as Aria dug out a pen from her purse and wrote an address and a phone number on his hand. "I just moved in a few days ago. Come by around eight thirty. James will be asleep then."

Aria shyly brushed his hair out of his eyes then turned around and walked down the aisle.

"Aria?"

"Hm?"

"You'll be there for sure? I don't want this to end up like the last time we said goodbye."

"I'll be there, I promise." She flashed him a small, uncomfortable smile and walked down the aisle.

Ezra walked back over to his cart and grabbed for the box of Cheerios. Staring at the box of whole grain food, a thought danced its way into Ezra's mind. _All this because I'm too lazy to make anything but cereal. _He took a look at his hand, and a small, struggling smile spread across his face.

Maybe today wasn't going to be so bad after all.


	3. Chapter 3

Still trying to keep herself together, Aria quickly scurried down the aisle, trying not to look back. Her mind was reeling.

_Oh my god. What just happened? What am I going to tell James? Oh my god I invited him over tonight! What was I thinking? A ten minute conversation in the middle of the cereal aisle doesn't change anything. Will he even show up?_

Approaching Hanna and James, Aria made sure her face was clear of emotion. She tried to suppress all the guilt and anxiety that was sending her stomach into turmoil.

"Okay, we've got to go get milk. Come on Hanna!" Aria picked up James and placed him in the child seat on the shopping cart, and pushed him towards the area where milk was kept.

"Momma, why are you going so fast? It's like we're in a race car!"

"That's exactly what we're doing buddy." She raced off, not really in the mood to be interrogated by Hanna. She'd told Hanna that she had to take care of something first, but the moment she arrived back to the cart Aria knew that James had filled her in on what had happened. Who had happened. Hanna's expression said it all.

Aria internally groaned, hearing the angry clicking of Hanna's heels trailing after her.

"Aria, stop." Hanna turned to her godson and asked him sweetly, "James sweetie, can you cover your ears for a second?"

"Why?" The little boy looked up at her, a confused expression on his face.

"Never mind." Hanna took matters into her own hands, literally, and clapped her hands over his tiny ears.

"Aria, what the hell just happened? Do you know what Jamie just told me? He told me that I didn't need to worry when he was lost, because Ezra was taking care of him?!" They'd stopped in the middle of the store, Hanna just staring at Aria, demanding an explanation. "Does he mean _Ezra_ Ezra? Because then you have a lot of explaining to do."

"I'll tell you later, when my son isn't sitting right here, okay?" Aria shot her a glare, and motioned for her to remove her hands from James' ears.

"Looks like he's not just yours anymore." She muttered.

James looked up to his mother, giving her a confused look. _He looks so much like Ezra when he does that._ She shot Hanna another dirty look; sometimes she needed to just stop talking.

"Nothing that you need to worry about baby. Come on, let's go grab you some Kraft Dinner for lunch tomorrow."

They hadn't walked very far until Aria heard a beep coming from her purse.

**H: Tell me.**

**A: Really, you're walking next to me and you're gonna text me?**

**H: Well unless you want me to discuss how James just met his dad for the first time right in front of him…**

**A: No thanks. I'll tell you how things go after tonight. **

Just as fast as Aria had sent the text, she immediately regretted it; she wasn't intending on telling anyone that she'd invited Ezra over. She wasn't even sure if she was ready to have Ezra over. She'd panicked, what else was she supposed to do?

Truth be told, she was nervous about this being the first and last time she saw him again. What if he didn't show up? How would she contact him?

**H: OMG. What?!**

**A: Nevermind.**

A small part in her brain told her that she could look at the old emails she'd saved, or the voicemails she'd never deleted. She fucking hated that small part of her. The one that gave her daily reminders of what she'd done, the mistakes she had made. The one that made certain days harder to get through than others.

They walked to the check out in silence, but Aria could feel Hanna's eyes burning into the back of her head. James was oblivious, only focusing on the new fiery red car Hanna had bought for him that day.

Aria sighed, it seemed like this day was only going to get longer.


	4. Chapter 4

Ezra stood at Aria's front door, trying to summon up the courage to knock. He'd been standing there for a few minutes already, not sure whether or not he should've actually come.

He'd spent his day going back and forth between being immensely angry and extremely curious, wondering just what he was supposed to feel about the situation.

He stood there like a little kid trying to jump in a lake; not sure how deep the water was, but knowing that if he didn't do it now, he never would. On an impulse, he tapped the door. _Oh god. What did I just do? _

He pulled out his phone to check the time. 8:30. He was precisely on time. Only moments had passed before Aria opened the door.

"Uhm, hi." Aria tried to make sure that she didn't sound too nervous, and waved him inside. "Come in, make yourself at home. I'm just gonna go make sure James is asleep and grab a few things."

Ezra made his way towards the couch, trying to take everything in. Most of the furniture was in place, but a few boxes were left here or there, yet to be unpacked. Ezra inhaled; even though she'd only moved in, the house was even starting to smell like her; coffee with a trace of vanilla.

The same as always.

The den area had a television set up with a love seat and a rather uncomfortable looking wooden chair to the side, so Ezra sat himself down on the small couch.

With nothing better to do, he grabbed a magazine from the stack that was sprawled on the coffee table in front of him. Mindlessly flipping through the pages of celebrity gossip and rumours, Ezra didn't even notice Aria come downstairs with mascara running down her cheeks. She quickly put a stack of discs and photo albums on the coffee table before wiping her eyes.

"Okay, so what do you want to see first?" She exhaled heavily, she knew her voice had trembled slightly, giving away the fact that she'd been crying.

Ezra looked up and could see that she'd been crying; there was mascara under her left eye that was smudged, and he could tell by the fragile expression on her face.

"Aria…" He shifted slightly, ready to comfort her if she needed it. But then he remembered that things weren't like they used to be. He couldn't hold her because saw her hurting, or if he just wanted her to feel safe.

Part of him still didn't know if it was okay for him to want to comfort her after what she'd done.

"Don't talk to me like that. I don't deserve it. I took your son out of your life before you could even know him, without even telling you about him. That was completely unfair. He grew up without a father figure in his life and that's totally my fault." Aria tried to keep herself from crying, but clearly unsuccessful, there were tears streaming down her face. "What's even worse is that you can still care for me after everything I've done, and that makes it even harder to forgive myself. You can still look at me and tell what's wrong, and still be willing to comfort me when I need it. I can't even comprehend how you can keep so calm throughout this whole thing. I fucking hate myself for what I did Ezra."

The words broke his heart. He knew that on some plain of existence, they shouldn't, but her tone of voice did him in. Some days she did. The truth in her voice shook his being.

"You should be screaming at me, Ezra. Please. Yell at me, say something, do something. Tell me you hate me. Tell me that you never want to see me again. Something."

Ezra stood up, not one hundred percent sure of what he should say. Instead just walked over to Aria and held her, because he knew this is what she really needed; to feel safe and know that someone was there for her. They only stood there for a second before Aria stepped away.

"You see this? This is what I'm talking about."

"Aria, calm down, if you get any louder you're going to wake your son up." She fell back into Ezra's arms again, not knowing what else to do. Ezra stroked her hair for a couple minutes, trying to calm her down. He wasn't going to get his point across when she was worked up.

"Yes, I'm angry. I'm going to be for a while, there's no denying that. But I'm not going to hate you, I'm not going to yell. If we don't try to move past this, we'll be stuck in a never ending cycle which won't be good for either of us or James." He pulled back, looking straight into Aria's eyes. "I know you regret what you did, and I can tell how it hurts you to know that I'm not in his life because of your decisions. But the reason I can stand here and still care about you is because I know you didn't do this out of spite; you did what you thought was best for James at the timeI would've much rather you told me that you were pregnant with him, but we can't change the past, we can only decide our future."

"Our son." she whispered.

"Hm?"

"You said 'you're going to wake your son up.' He's our son." She untangled herself from Ezra's arms, and grabbed the disc from the top of the pile and popped it in the DVD player.

Ezra smiled a little. "Is that all you retained from what I just told you?"

"No, but I don't know what else to say." She walked back towards Ezra and tried to get around him. "He's our son, and I'm sorry I kept him from you, Ezra."

"Hey, look at me." Ezra gently grabbed her arm to stop her from trying to get away. "Promise me that you'll stop hating yourself from keeping him away from me. Please."

"No." Aria looked away, trying to avoid eye contact with him. Ezra took his hand and placed it under her chin, forcing her to look into his eyes.

"Please."

It hurt him to know she beat herself up over this. It didn't make sense to him, but the tugging feeling in his heart when he saw her look so broken told him everything he needed to know.

Aria sighed, and could feel her tears coming back. This was one thing she was sure she'd regret for the rest of her life. At the time she knew keeping James from Ezra was wrong, but it felt… _necessary._ Facing Ezra again brought all the doubt, the fear back from when she'd first decided to keep James a secret.

"I'll consider it." She sighed and wiped her eyes, sitting down on the wooden chair.

"Thank you. And Aria? You don't need to sit on that chair. I won't bite. I promise." He flashed her a hesitant grin, before tapping the empty spot next to him. Very slowly, she got up and joined him before hitting play.

"What are we watching?" Ezra kept his tone light, this was going to be a good thing, he told himself. A new beginning. Hopefully.

"I think this disc is his first two years. Everything from when I took him home to his second birthday."

For the next half hour they watched Aria's home movies of her and James. Ezra watched everything with such wonder in his eyes, but Aria could also see longing, and she knew that it was her fault. They first video was of Aria taking James home from the hospital.

_Aria was playing with James' tiny hands, marveling at how tiny they were when he grasped her fingers. _

'_James William Fitz. You're such a handsome baby. I named you James after your great-grandpa and William after William Shakespeare. Your daddy was an English teacher after all. He'd be so proud of you baby boy…'_

The video cut out and then went to videos ranging from him sleeping, to Aria singing to him, or her reading to him. Ezra watched as his son grew before his eyes, seeing how even week to week videos slight things had changed. He'd gotten a little bigger, his hair a tiny bit longer; little things that you normally wouldn't have noticed. Most of the clips were short until there was one blurry one, which seemed to be Aria running through a hallway.

_James! Don't stop! Keep walking; I've got to get this on camera!_

_Things finally settled down and the camera was trained on James, who was shakily standing up. When he saw his mom, he had such a determined face on for a baby, and slowly took a good six steps towards his mom before falling into her arms._

_James William Fitz! You just took your first steps!_

The video switched again, to one of Aria singing to him while giving him a bath.

"He looked so much like you in that clip. The small crease that formed between his eyebrows when he was walking towards me nearly broke my heart. Another moment that I knew you weren't going to be there for. My fault again." She allowed tears to silently roll her cheeks, and tentatively leaned her head on Ezra's shoulder.

They watched as he said his first word, mama, and things like his first time on the swings at the park. There were even more videos of stories that Aria used to tell him.

Things seemed to go smoothly, until his first birthday. Recognizing the clip, Aria tensed up. He could feel the difference in her demeanor immediately.

_Aria tied a red balloon to the high chair, and cooed at James._

'_James you're one year old today! One year since you came into the world! Here's your first birthday present little man!'_

_You could see Aria hold out a picture of some sort, but all you could see was the blank back of it. _

'_It's a picture of daddy! I'm sure he loves you so much buddy. One day.'_

_James seemed to look at the picture, a sense of recognition on his face. He'd never even met his dad, but for some reason you could see that James was okay with the man in the picture, he seemed intrigued by it. _

'_Dada.' He pointed at the picture. _

'_Yeah baby, that's dada. He loves you so much, always remember that.' Aria planted a kiss on James' forehead before switching the video camera off._

Ezra sat there, shocked at what he'd just seen. His son had called him 'dada' before, and that filled him with joy.

Aria stayed completely still next to him, paralyzed at what his reaction might be. Anger or sadness? Would he want to leave? She took a breath before turning to look at him.

She turned to see a single tear roll down his cheek.

Never once had she seen Ezra cry. Ever. No matter what loop they'd been thrown through, Aria had never seen him shed a single tear. Until now.

"I'm so sorry Ezra, please don't hate me. I rea-" She was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

"I could never hate you, this is just... big. He kind of knew me, at some point. And if you let me, maybe he'll be able to get to know me better in the future. He called me 'dada'." Ezra had such a large smile on his face that it amazed Aria, causing the tears to stream down her face.

"It's my fault that you weren't there for these moments Ezra. I can see how badly you want this, to have been there for all of it, and for that I'm truly sorry." Before she could start again, Ezra shushed her.

"I know you are; Aria I forgive you for what you did, okay? I forgive you. It know it's going to be hard to believe, but in this moment know that nothing could make me hate you."

He didn't say anything, but just allowed her to curl up to his side. He might forgive her, but truth be told she wasn't ready to forgive herself. Not yet.

They watched the rest of the discs together, and by the time Ezra had watched the first four years of his son's life, it was nearly midnight. He shifted to get up; only to find that Aria had fallen asleep nestled up beside him. Unsure what else to do, Ezra carefully lifted Aria up, and quietly carried her upstairs. He passed the first room on the right, knowing that it was James' room. The race car poster hanging on his door gave it away. The room with the door open was Aria's. He laid her down on her bed and tucked her in, wiping away the tears that remained on her cheeks.

_All that crying must've tired her out. _Ezra looked around the room until he found what he needed. On her desk there was a pad of post-it notes, and a pen. He scribbled out a note and put it on Aria's bedside table.

_**Thank you for tonight.**_

_** -EF**_

Ezra shut the bedroom door behind him, and crept down the stairs. He silently chuckled to himself as he grabbed his phone from the coffee table. If earlier today someone had told him that he'd be at Aria Montgomery's house, he would've thought they were crazy. Guess it's not so insane after all.


	5. Chapter 5

_Buzz. Buzz. Buzz._

"Oh god what is that." Aria slowly opened her eyes, blinking rapidly. _Why is it so bright in here?_ She blindly grasped in the direction of the buzzing, trying to shut it off. After grabbing multiple things that were clearly not the source of the buzzing, she put her hand on her phone. Picking it up, Aria took a look at the screen.

**3 New Text Messages – Hanna Marin **

"Oh crap." Aria took a look at the time. 11:47. James should've been up hours ago. Aria hopped out of bed, still half asleep. Stumbling down the hall, she looked in James' room. He wasn't there, but his bed was made, and a bunch of cars were strewn across the floor.

She crept down the stairs, only to see James sitting on the couch, watching TV. Looking around the den, there were cars, transformers, and colouring books everywhere.

"Morning Momma!" James looked at his mom with glee. "I made breakfast this morning! Froot Loops with chocolate milk and extra sugar! Want some?" He held up a bowl of mushy cereal and brown sugary soup.

"You know what Jamie, Momma's gonna take this, and I'll make you some real breakfast. How does eggs and bacon sound to you little man?" Aria grabbed the bowl and took it to the kitchen. Surprisingly there was no spilled milk; Froot Loops were in the box. No mess anywhere.

"James, what time did you get up at?"

"Eight."

"Why didn't you wake me up honey?" Aria continued to scrape the sugary mess out of the bowl. James was going to be on one massive sugar high. Maybe she'd drop him off at Hanna's later today; she owed Hanna an explanation anyways.

"Cause you looked sleepy. I just came down here and watched DVDs. And then I played cars and coloured." James bounced up off the couch, and walked over dragging along the stuffed puppy that Spencer had got him for his birthday that year. "I thought it was Finding Nemo, but it was videos of me when I was a baby!"

Aria nodded, still not paying that much attention. She was never really awake until she had a cup of coffee. "You've seen Finding Nemo at least twenty times Jamie." She poured a cup of coffee into her favourite mug, and then went and sat on the couch. She took a look on the coffee table, and the DVDs and picture albums from last night were still sitting there. _Crap._

"See Momma! That's what I watched!" Aria turned to her son, he mouth open slightly._ Oh my god._

"You watched this? All of it?" Aria quickly popped the DVD back in its case, panic taking over.

James put his stuffed dog on the kitchen counter and walked over to his mom. Even as a four year old he knew it was a delicate situation. Aria just sat there, staring at her son. She knew he was a bright kid, but she prayed that he wouldn't ask the question she knew was inevitably coming.

"Mum, why don't I have a daddy? Other kids get their daddies to push them on the swing at the park, but I don't. Everyone has a daddy right?" James looked at her with such innocence in his eyes which caused Aria to shatter inside; no four year old should have to ask that question.

"Yes they do sweetie."

"Well where's mine?" A puzzled expression came across the boys' face. "You showed me a picture when I was a baby. So it's not like he's imaginary or something."

Aria faltered. What could she possibly say in this situation? There was no right answer; but she hesitated when it came to telling him the truth.

Aria already hated herself for the position that she had put Ezra in, but for her son to know that she was the reason he had no father in his life? Even if she'd dated a few guys in the past five years, it never seemed to work out, and James never liked any of them. To just come out and tell him that he'd met his father yesterday in the grocery store and that Aria had taken him away from the opportunity to know his dad wasn't an option.

She picked up James and brought him to sit on her lap. He was quite small for his age, Aria was worried that he'd inherited her petite stature. Everything else about him resembled Ezra.

"Jamie honey, daddy is-" Aria was cut off by a buzzing coming from the kitchen counter. _Thank god for whoever is phoning me. _James jumped off his mom's lap and ran to get the phone. "Can I answer it Mum?"

"Go ahead baby. Remember to be polite." Aria let out a breath she wasn't aware she was holding. She'd dodged a bullet there, even if it was only for however long the conversation on the phone lasted.

"Sure you can talk to her. Momma!" James beckoned her over and covered the bottom half of the phone.

"Who is it Jamie?" Aria took the phone from him and slowly brought it up to her ear. "I dunno Momma. It's not Uncle Caleb or Uncle Toby." James shrugged and ran off to play.

"Hello?"

"Aria, it's Ezra. Can you do me a favour? I think my wallet slid out of my pocket last night, and might be in your couch or something. Could you check for me?"

She panicked. Why have these past couple of days been so hectic? It seems that if something ironic could happen, it would. A thought crossed her mind before replying to Ezra. _I'm going to have to tell him. I'm going to have to introduce him to my son. Our son. I'm going to have to tell Jamie everything. Well, maybe not the teacher-student part, but everything else I will. _Aria took a look to make sure James was playing in the living room still, and took a step into the office that was across from the kitchen. She walked in and shut the door behind her.

"Aria, you there?" She could hear Ezra asking on the other line. Her words came out so fast she was surprised Ezra could understand them.

"Ezra, I have three things to tell you. First off, thank you for last night, besides all the crying and fighting, I'm happy you got to see all of videos of James. Secondly, thank you for carrying me up to bed, always the gentleman, right? And thirdly, James just asked me where his dad is so I'm going to have to tell him. Okay?"

There was silence on the other side.

"What?"

Aria took a breath before explaining everything that had just transpired to Ezra. "What do I say to him Ezra? I don't think a four year old can handle the real story, but that's the only thing I can tell him! How else do you explain this situation? Explain what happened with us to a little kid? Of course no matter what he'll have questions. And when he sees you he'll obviously remember you from the grocery store!" Aria tried to hold back the tears that were beginning to form. She hadn't planned on all this happening as soon as she'd moved back to Rosewood.

Ezra sighed on the other end. "Okay, I think I have a plan. It may not be fool proof but I think it's less _dramatic_ for a four year old to hear. Tell him I went on vacation, and that I'm coming back soon. You were trying to keep it a surprise, but he found out before you could tell him. Does that sound like a plan?"

"Ezra, if we're going to do this it has to be tonight. No way will Jamie stop pestering me about it if we delay it any longer." Aria sat down in the grey arm chair that sat in front of her bookcase. Everything was happening so fast. She didn't know what to do.

Sure, a part of her had hoped moving back to Rosewood would involve reconnecting with Ezra on some level, as selfish as it was of her. Had she expecting things to go so quickly, for life to hit her like a train? Absolutely not.

"This is all going so fast Aria, but if this is what has to happen, so be it. What time should I be over?"

She groaned. "You know, it's barely noon and I could already go for a drink. Be over around seven, okay?"

"Sounds great."

"Ezra, I'm also telling him that you're going to bring him the world's most kick ass Hot Wheels car in compensation for being gone so long, okay?" Aria laughed; joking about the situation made it seem a little bit better than it actually was. She heard Ezra chuckle on the other line.

"I know what I'm spending the rest of my afternoon doing. I'll see you tonight at seven."

"Bye."

Aria hung up the phone and turned to go out the door, only to see James standing right outside the door.

"Momma, who was that?"

She picked him up and rested him on her hip, so she was looking at him straight in the eyes. "Not important baby. But I have something to tell you. It's a secret, but do you want to know what it is?"

James nodded vigorously.

"Well sweetie, daddy's not here because he's been on vacation. And guess what? He's coming home tonight. I was going to tell you this morning but you figured it out all by yourself." She tapped his tiny nose with her finger.

"I'm gonna have a daddy?"

"Yes you are baby boy." Aria breathed out, not knowing what his reaction would be. But the expression on his face said it all; it was like Christmas morning had just arrived, and his reaction was something Aria would never forget.


	6. Chapter 6

Aria pulled into Hanna's driveway, trying to hold her sanity together. From the time that she'd told him that he was going to meet his dad, James wouldn't stop asking questions about him. Of course this was to be expected, but Aria couldn't answer a lot of them. Most were of where Ezra had been, and why he hadn't come back.

Aria had him over last night for the first time in five years, and the entire time they'd talked about James; she really didn't know anything of what he'd been up to over the past five years.

She went over and opened James' car door, and immediately he jumped out of the car, eager to tell everyone his news.

Walking up the driveway, Aria noticed that Hanna and Caleb's cars weren't the only ones in the driveway; Spencer's Camry was sitting there as well. At least she'd be able to hit two birds with one stone. She'd have to tell Emily separately when she got back from visiting her parents.

James ran through the open door just as Aria got to the porch.

"Auntie Nan, Auntie Spencer! Guess what!" James screamed at them.

"What's that little man, I don't even get a hug?" Hanna joked with him.

"Your hug can wait… I'M GETTING A DADDY!" James screeched.

_Oh dear._ If there was any way that Aria was going to break the news to the girls, this was not it. James' explanation made things sound one hundred times worse than it actually was. Spencer and Hanna turned to the door, where Aria was now standing.

"He's what?!" They both exclaimed, their faces full of surprise. Hanna stepped forward, clearly ready to say something witty. Instead, Spencer stepped forward. "He's getting his Daddy, Aria? You mean Ez-" Aria cut her off with a look.

"Yes, his daddy is coming back from vacation finally. I'll tell you all about it upstairs. Han, is Caleb home?"

"Yeah he is. He's downstairs working on something on the computer."

Aria quickly ushered her son downstairs, telling him that he could go play with Uncle Caleb for a while. When she got back to the kitchen, it felt like she was in high school all over again. Spencer and Hanna were sitting at the island, giving her expectant stares. Aria sighed; she might as well start from the beginning.

"So Han, you know what happened yesterday, kind of, but I'm going to start from the beginning for Spence. Yesterday I lost James in the grocery store for a good ten minutes. I was-"

"You lost James." Spencer asked and Aria could hear a hint of disbelief in her voice.

"Yes, not my shining moment as a parent, but that's beside the point. Anyways, when I found him, he was with an adult who I guess was looking after him while he was separated from me. And it might've been Ezra." She sat down, nervously fidgeting with her hands. "I called James by his full name when I found him, and Ezra put two and two together. We fought a little in the aisle, but I felt guilty and ended up telling him about the videos I have of James from when he was little, so I invited him over to watch them."

"You invited him over to your house? After a five minute conversation in the grocery store? You don't think that was a bit detrimental? I mean you've spent hours upon hours crying to us about him. I'd be surprised if you lasted the entire night without having a breakdown." Spencer was not impressed. Hanna, on the other hand, remained pretty much silent.

"I really didn't. I ended up crying all over him and probably ruining his shirt. I told him how I regretted hiding James from him, and basically everything I've told you guys about it; and the asshole forgave me!"

Her words were harsh, she knew that. It still blew her mind that Ezra could forgive her after one night. It'd been five years and she hadn't managed to forgive herself yet.

"Wow, so he forgave you. Aria, how horrible can he be?" Hanna laid the sarcasm on thick as she went and grabbed the now full coffee pot to pour the girls some coffee. "Hun, this is Ezra we're talking about. He's not the type to hold a grudge. You know that. I'll even bet you my new Jimmy Choo heels that he's still in love with you. Coffee?" Spencer nodded vigorously; clearly she hadn't had her morning cup yet.

Aria paled.

She hadn't thought of that. What if he did?

Just the way he'd held her, the way things felt... It felt almost like things were back to the way they were. Almost.

Before they could say anymore, Aria continued on with her story. "So basically I fell asleep on the couch last night, and woke up in my room this morning after sleeping in. I came downstairs and James told me that he watched the DVDs that Ezra and I had left out last night. And of course right after that he asked me why he doesn't have a daddy."

"Ouch." Hanna and Spencer said in unison.

"Yeah, so then at that moment, Ezra called, so I told him everything and he came up with the idea that he was on 'vacation' but he's coming home tonight. I mean it seems like James bought it, but he's a smart kid, you two know that. I'm not sure how long he's going to believe us for."

"Wait, how exactly did you end up upstairs if you fell asleep on the couch…?" Spencer turned to Aria coyly. Aria narrowed her eyes, shooting her best friend a death glare.

"Shut up. I was with the father of my son for a couple hours after accidentally running into him at the grocery store. You guys are awful."

"So then how'd you get up there? He's not just the father of your son, Aria. Don't try and play it off like that." Spencer said.

Aria sighed. "I'm assuming he carried me. I sleep like a rock, and once I'm out, there's no waking me up."

A small chorus of 'aww' rang from her two best friends.

"Guys, seriously… It's been forever, there's nothing going on between us. I've seen him more in the past two days then I have in five years. We're not just going to go back to how things used to be… I'm not even sure what he's been up to… For all I know he _could_ have a girlfriend, or even a family."

"Aria. You know the answer to that question; don't even try to give us that crap. You can't say that you still don't feel _something_ for him. All those tears have to mean something, Ar. Tell us honestly." Spencer placed her coffee cup in the sink, washing it out.

"I… I really don't know you guys. I mean, of course I'll always feel something for him; but I'm not sure if what I feel is the same as it used to be." Aria closed her eyes and started to massage her temples. She could feel a headache coming on. "With everything with Jamie happening in the blink of an eye, I'm so confused. Things are whizzing by without me even considering any of it."

Aria opened her eyes to Hanna smiling at her from across the island. "What are you smiling at?" Spencer stepped beside her, smiling as well.

"Seriously guys, you're creeping me out."

Hanna slid Aria her phone across the island, and she barely caught it before it slid off the edge. "Never mind, we'll tell you later." Hanna pointed to James, who had just come upstairs, being carried upside down by Caleb.

"Auntie Hanna! Tell Uncle Caleb to put me down!" The little boy tried to keep a straight face, but he ended up squealing in delight.

Aria looked at Caleb, who had feigned mock hurt. "But he called me a nerd!" James giggled as Caleb set him down on the floor. "Whatever Jamie, the nerd always gets the girl." Caleb walked over to Hanna, and grabbed her by the waist. "Isn't that right?" Hanna smiled and leaned in for a chaste kiss.

"Ewww." James ran over to his mom and jumped into her arms. Aria swiftly picked her son up and balanced him on her hip. "Jamie, listen to your uncle, he gives good advice."

"But girls have cooties, Momma! Yuck." Aria smiled. It's amazing how James could make her smile, even in the most stressful of situations. "Okay Little Man, but just remember that in the future, okay?"

Hanna dragged a chair over next to her and called over to Jamie. "Come sit over here sweetheart… You know, I still haven't gotten my 'good morning' hug! What's up with that?"

Aria let go of James as he took off towards his aunt. "Sorry Auntie Nan!" He launched himself into her arms, giving her barely enough time to put down her coffee mug. "Better?" He flashed Hanna a smile.

"Much!"

Aria internally sighed. James had gotten everything from Ezra except for his hair and his height; their smile was the exact same. Aria stood in silence as she watched James give Spencer a huge hug as well. So many thoughts were focused on James; the most prominent of which being how he would react to finding out that Ezra was his father. That was going to be hard to explain, but they were just going to have to cross that bridge when they got to it.

What was really beginning to itch in the back of her mind was what the girls had said. The idea of being with Ezra again had come across Aria's mind so many times in the past five years, but when presented with the fact that it might possibly happen, she found that it actually freaked her out a bit. _I mean, it's not like I'm still in love with him… I've dated other guys; even if it never worked out._ A small war began raging in Aria's head; one side arguing the point against her and Ezra, the other for them. _Do I…?_ Before she could get too lost in her thoughts, James snapped her back into reality.

"Right Momma?"

"Hmm, sorry baby, what?"

"Daddy's coming back from vacation tonight!" His expression as he said this made Aria smile. It was the 'Christmas Morning' expression again.

"Yep! And he's so excited to see you sweet heart." _Again._ Aria added mentally.

"Did you miss him?"

The question took Aria surprise, but she answered honestly, looking the girls in the eyes as she said it. "Of course I have Jamie. More than you know."


	7. Chapter 7

"Momma calm down, he's not gonna be here for another five minutes!" James lay on his stomach in the middle of the living room, racing a car along a track he'd gotten for his last birthday. As soon as they'd gotten home from Hanna's, James had taken the liberty to put out all his favourite race tracks to show his dad.

For the past half hour Aria had been pacing around the house; less worried about Ezra seeing James again, but more how James would react to the fact that Ezra was his father. A million different situations ran through her mind, all ranging from bad to worse. Her heart was racing a thousand miles a second, but she could swear that it stopped when she heard a knock on the door. James stood up, dropping his cars on the floor.

"Mum, you can get it." Aria slowly went to get the door, and James followed behind her, situating himself on the stairs. _Oh my god. I'm pretty sure I'm going to start hyperventilating or something. It's now or never._ Aria reached for the door, and could swear that her heart restarted the moment she saw Ezra standing on the other side.

"Hi."

"Hi."

"Are you ready for this?" Aria whispered.

"Well, I'm standing on your front porch, so there's no going back now." Ezra flashed her a nervous smile as she invited him inside. He walked around Aria before once again coming face to face with his son.

"You're Ezra…?" James had a confused look on his face; he was trying to understand why the guy from the grocery store was here. Ezra crouched down in front of James, resting his hands on his knees.

Ezra took a deep breath, looking at the ground and composing himself before beginning.

"Here's the thing buddy, we were supposed to meet today, but we ran into each other by accident yesterday." Even though the words didn't seem to fit right, it was all Ezra could come up with. There's not much you can come up with to make the situation any better.

"So… you're my daddy?" James stood up; his expression had shifted from confused to torn.

"Yeah, I am." Ezra just sat there, waiting for his son's reaction; hoping that it'd be good rather than bad. He wanted to be in his son's life more than anything. The suspense was killing him. All day he'd gone back and forth on his son's possible reactions. For every okay outcome there were at least three bad ones.

After a second of consideration, James nodded, and hopped off the stairs, before taking a few steps towards Ezra and latched himself onto his dad with a big hug. "Okay daddy."

A huge wave of relief washed over both Aria and Ezra, James' acceptance had been something they had both desperately wanted, whether they'd voiced that hope to each other or not. Ezra let out the breath that he was holding, completely overjoyed that his son accepted him so easily.

"Daddy, do you wanna come see all my cars?"

"Absolutely! Lead the way Jamie." Ezra followed the little boy to where he'd spent most of his time that afternoon. "Wow, you have so many… which one's your favourite?"

James picked up a red, beat up looking car. "This one. It's the first one I ever got. Momma got it for me! Here, you can play with this blue one." Aria watched the pair as Ezra played cars with his son, not a complaint escaping from his lips.

"Momma, here! You can have the purple car and we'll all play together, okay?" Aria smiled as she went and sat down with James and Ezra, both whizzing their cars down the track. It was a bittersweet moment for her, mainly because even though it was a joy to have all three of them together in a 'family' atmosphere, Aria knew that it was her fault that this was the first time James had even had a moment like this.

Before she could get too lost in her thoughts, Ezra called her back to reality. He could tell what she was thinking about just by looking at her. "Hey, don't worry about it, okay?" He brushed her hand with his, just the slightest of touches, but it calmed her. Aria nodded, but their conversation didn't go unnoticed by James.

"About what?"

"Nothing you need to worry about James." Ezra asked, trying to change the subject. "Hey, when do you start school bud?"

"My first day is next week! Will you be there dad?" James sent a car flying through the air, nearly hitting Ezra in the head.

"If you want me to, but let's make a deal: no more flying cars, okay?" Jamie nodded vigorously, carefully setting his car back on the ground.

Aria and Ezra sat and watched James play with his cars for the next hour; James made sure to tell Ezra the story behind every one of his cars. Most were given to him by Aria and Hanna, but he owned cars that were from all of Aria's friends.

It was just after eight when James let out a yawn.

"Time for bed, Jamie." Aria stood up and went and picked her son up.

"But Mom, can't I stay up just a little more? Pleeeassee?" He shot her a grin, trying to win her over.

"Baby, you start school in a week, we have to get you into a routine, okay? Besides, daddy can come see you tomorrow." Aria stroked James' curly hair out of his eyes.

James turned to look at Ezra. "Promise?"

"I promise."

James smiled and jumped out of Aria's arms, running up the stairs.

"Five minutes before I come and tuck you in! Get into your PJ's and brush your teeth!" Aria hollered.

"Okay Momma!"

Aria sighed, and plopped herself down on the couch beside Ezra.

"Can I ask you a favour?" Ezra nodded for her to proceed. "Could you watch him for a few hours tomorrow? I have a meeting that I have to go to. I know it's kind of last minute but it's one of those 'can't miss' things."

"I would, but I'm busy tomorrow. Rosewood High has a mandatory meeting for all the teachers tomorrow morning. I can't skip it, no matter how much I want to."

Aria just sat there, her mouth hanging open; speechless.

"Aria, it's no big deal, just ask Hanna or Spencer to watch him. What's the matter?" Ezra looked generally concerned; Aria's reaction wasn't something he was expecting. He thought it'd be an 'okay that's fine,' or something along those terms.

After moments of silence, Aria spoke up. "You don't teach at Hollis anymore?"

"No… I left last summer. I've been teaching English at Rosewood for a year now. Why?"

"I just got hired there. To teach English. We're going to be co-workers."

Ezra was about to respond before they got interrupted by James, who was calling from upstairs, ready to be tucked in. Ezra volunteered to go tuck James in, leaving Aria alone on the couch.

_Crap, really? Of all things, we're going to be co-workers too?_

Even though Ezra had forgiven Aria for hiding James from him, the pain that blossomed inside her when she saw them together wasn't allowing her to forgive herself. It'd only been two days… Fate seemed to be determined to cram her and Ezra together as much as possible.

The most pressing of all these situations hadn't even crossed Aria's mind until Hanna and Spencer had brought it up that afternoon… She'd sworn to never open up that doorway after she left for university five years ago. If she was going to hide James from Ezra, she couldn't want to be with him. But now that Ezra was becoming a part of James' life, could they go down that road again? _I mean this afternoon I practically told the girls I still feel something for him; but there's no way I could delve into it… With Jamie things would be so complicated._

Ezra had gone to tuck James in, and just as he went to turn off the light, he heard James call him.

"Yeah buddy?"

"Daddy, you didn't go on vacation did you?" The little crease Aria told him about formed between Jamie's eyebrows. "I can tell when Momma tells me a lie sometimes. She sounds different."

Ezra sighed. _Crap._ He didn't think that James would believe him and Aria forever, but he never expected him to figure it out so quickly. "No, I didn't buddy."

"I know." James said, matter-of-factly. "But we'll keep it a secret that I know. I think it makes Momma sad, she likes it when we play together daddy. She also liked it when she saw you at the door. I could tell." James stated knowingly.

"Okay, it'll be our secret. Now go to bed Jamie, I'll see you tomorrow." Ezra flicked the light switch off.

"Night daddy."

Ezra walked down the stairs and went and sat beside Aria on the couch; they both remained silent for a minute, before Ezra broke the silence.

"Fate seems to be intent on pushing us together. First James, now we're co-workers."

"Funny, I was just thinking the exact same thing. I have no problem with either, but what I'm worried about is the fact that someone's going to notice that we keep dropping off the same kid at school. He's also a spitting image of you Ezra." Aria had a worried expression on her face, and she had pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging them close to her body.

Ezra shifted on the couch and pulled her into his side as he'd done the night before. Like before he waited for her to recoil, but it never came. "Well, we'll figure it out when the time comes, okay? I mean, the girls know he's mine, and your parents and Mike as well I'm assuming. So if they know, who else matters?"

Aria let out a sigh. "The girls know he's yours, as well as Mike. My parents don't know he's yours."

The look on Ezra's face was incredulous. "Your parents don't know he's mine. Who do they think his father is?" She could hear the anger in his voice.

"I told them that his dad was my ex-boyfriend who I was seeing in the summer. I told them I broke it off because he wasn't the guy I thought he was." Aria paused, but seeing the look on Ezra's face spurred her on. "Ezra, what was I supposed to do? We weren't even supposed to be seeing each other! My dad nearly killed you when we told them about us, what do you think he would've done if I'd told him James was yours? You wouldn't have lived to see another day."

"They were going to have to find out sooner or later. You know that right?" Ezra's words were harsher than intended, but for some reason this aggravated him more than anything else.

"I know." Aria could feel the tears starting to gather in her eyes, but she pushed them back. Ezra sighed, and wrapped his arm around Aria's side.

"You realize how much simpler things would be if you hadn't have left with James?"

"I know. If I could redo one thing in my life, that would be it. I would've told you about him right away. I know you would've been there for me and we could've gotten through whatever people threw at us together. You would've been there for everything; Jamie would have had a father. We could've braved my parents together." She lifted her head up from resting on his shoulder to turn and look him in the eyes. "We would probably still be together." As soon as the words left her mouth, a blush spread across her face. _That wasn't something I meant to say. _

Any hint of anger left Ezra's face, and was now replaced with surprise. "Where did that come from?" He whispered.

Aria became aware of how close they were together; she could feel him breathing. Ezra remained motionless, if anything was going to happen, he'd let Aria make the first move. She was confused enough, no need for him to mix her up anymore.

Instead, they sat still, looking into each other's eyes, contemplating the repercussions if they went for it. Aria had her mind made up as soon as she'd let the words exit her mouth. She slowly brought her hand up to Ezra's face, brushing the hair out of his eyes. "I'm so sorry." she whispered.

"I know." Aria leaned in closer, and for the first time in five years, their lips met. The pulled apart a bit, and Ezra placed his hand on the side of Aria's face.

"Maybe us being co-workers might be a problem." Ezra whispered. Aria smiled, and leaned for another kiss. She could feel him smiling, and she let out a small giggle.

"Maybe it will."


	8. Chapter 8

"There has to be a reason you look like you're on cloud nine, Ar. Seriously, this is probably the best mood I've seen you in since god knows how long ago." Hanna was buttering toast for James to eat, who was happily amusing himself with a brand new colouring book Hanna had got him. "And there's no way it's because you're going to work at Rosewood. No one is that happy about going back to work."

Aria shrugged and popped a spoonful of cereal in her mouth.

"You know, I think it might have to do with the fact that Ezra came over last night… Or am I wrong?" Hanna waggled her eyebrows at her friend, trying to coax the truth out of her. Clearly she wasn't going down without a fight. "I could always ask James. He'll probably know."

Aria responded with a mouthful of cereal. "Sure. Go ahead."

Hanna smiled, and went and brought James' toast over to him. "Hey Jamie, how did it go with your dad last night?"

"Great!" He said, while taking a bite out of his toast. "Me, momma and daddy all played cars together. And daddy's gonna come for my first day of school!" James took another huge bite out of his toast, and went back to colouring.

Hanna stalked back to Aria, clearly unhappy with what she had managed to gather. Seeing her expression, Aria flashed her friend a sarcastic smile. "Find out anything from my four year old son?"

"Shut up. You know you both talk with food in your mouths? It's rude." Just to aggravate Hanna more, Aria playfully chomped on her cereal. "Anyways," Aria pointed her spoon at her son who was sitting in the living area. "If anything _possibly_ happened, you think he'd have been there to witness it? Good one Han." She said in a hushed tone.

"What?! Okay, now you have to tell me!" Hanna shrieked, causing James to look up.

"Look at the time! I'll be late for my meeting if I spend any more time here. Bye baby, have a good morning with Auntie Hanna, I'll see you in a few hours." She blew him a kiss and started to head towards the door.

"Bye Momma, love you."

Not wanting Aria to get away without any answers, Hanna shouted a quick 'don't burn the house down' to James, and ran after her. She quickly caught up to Aria who had just reached the edge of the porch.

"You kissed him, didn't you?" Aria stopped and turned to Hanna, a coy smile on her face. "Maybe, maybe not… Thanks for watching him Han!" She turned and walked off to her car.

"Oh my god Aria! Way to go!" Hanna smiled and waved, and went back into her house, closing the door behind her.

Ezra rushed into Rosewood high worried that he'd be late for the faculty meeting.

_Crap. It's not my fault the stupid coffee maker wouldn't work._

Quickly stepping into the room, he grabbed a paper that the principal had printed out for the staff, and made his way to the back corner of the room, as all the chairs were already taken. Ezra took a look around the room; mostly all the people there were familiar faces; all returning teachers. The only exception was Aria.

Ezra noticed that she was sitting next to Ella, who was waving warmly at him. He shot her a friendly smile. Ella leaned over and whispered something to Aria, who turned and looked at him. They locked eyes, and both had a smile creep onto their faces at the same time. Ezra could've sworn he saw a small blush spread across Aria's face.

Before Ella could catch on, they both looked away, and turned their attention to the sheet in front of them. _Just a school policy review, nothing new._ The principal began to talk, welcoming the staff back to another year, and welcoming Aria back to Rosewood. Just at the mention of her name brought Ezra back to the night before.

He'd spent the whole car ride home and spent most of the night thinking about things between the two of them. Ezra had to remind himself about a thousand times that just because she'd kissed him didn't mean that things would be different between them. Perhaps it'd been a moment of weakness, or just an impulsive decision. There were so many possible situations that could play out, but there was only one that Ezra was hoping for. He continued to be absorbed in his own thoughts until something the principal was going over drew him back to reality.

"Of course I trust that none of you would stoop to this, but it's a board requirement that I go over it anyways; just a reminder that there is absolutely _no tolerance_ for student-teacher relationships. If any of the staff members are involved with a student, it will result in your job being terminated immediately."

Hesitantly, Ezra slowly looked over to Aria, and saw that she was looking at him out of the corner of her eye. He saw a smile starting to tug at her lips, and she quickly looked away. The rest of the meeting flew by fairly quickly; everything was just a review before the beginning of the school year. The only important thing was that all teachers were getting their room numbers.

"Ezra... Room 218, same as last year." The principal said.

Ezra nodded. "Thanks." He'd made up his mind that he'd wait until the meeting was over and then he'd go and talk to Aria. The only thing he had to get around was Ella. Last year when Ezra had starting working at Rosewood high again, he and Ella had gone back to having a friendly relationship. She'd once said something along the lines of 'whatever happened in the past happened, if we're going to be colleagues we have to be professional about it."

Byron, on the other hand was a completely different story. The few times Ezra had run into Byron, it'd been extremely awkward. Byron was clearly still unimpressed with him, and Ezra had to act as though he was walking on eggshells with Byron. The last thing he wanted was to have him angrier than he already was.

After the principal had said his final words, Ezra walked over to Ella and Aria.

"Good morning Ella, morning Aria."

Ella looked up, and gave him a smile. "Morning Ezra, how was your summer break?" She asked politely, putting her paper into her purse.

"Mine was fairly dull, nothing above average, except for this last week." He said, clearly looking at Aria while he spoke. She had to bite her lip to keep her from letting out a giggle.

Ella sighed. "I know how you feel; going back to work always tends to send me into a frenzy, like I've got to pack what I haven't done in my time off all in one week."

Ezra nodded. _Sure, that's what I meant. _

Ella spoke up again. "So it must be a bit weird to be working with Aria. She was your student a couple years ago." The way that Ella had put emphasis on student clearly implied 'ex-girlfriend', but she'd never actually say that out loud.

Ezra cleared his throat. "Well, that was a while ago. Things change Ella." He looked to Aria, who was standing just behind her mother. She gave him an encouraging nod; he'd said the right thing. For now.

Ella seemed to be okay with his response, so she carried on and turned to Aria. "You haven't come for dinner in months, honey. How about you and James come for dinner this Friday? I can't imagine how big my grandson's gotten."

Aria hesitated for a moment, her mouth open. "Uh, sure. Friday sounds good, Mom." Aria looked at Ezra, who seemed like he'd seen a ghost. Both of them were thinking the exact same thing. There was no way James was going to keep his mouth shut about Ezra being his dad.

"Great! I'll phone you tonight to work out details. In the mean time, I have to make a couple errands." She said her goodbyes then left the room. A few teachers were still in the room conversing about the upcoming school year.

"So what room are you in?" Aria asked.

"218. What about you?"

Aria snickered. "This just keeps getting better. 217. We're across the hall from each other."

"Well then, how about I walk you to class?" Ezra asked, flashing her a quick grin. "Sure."

The pair walked in silence, as both had so many questions racing through their minds. Arriving at the end of the English hall, where their classrooms were, Ezra and Aria turned to face each other.

"Friday..." Was all Aria said. "I know. But we have four days to figure things out." She looked down the hall to make sure no one was there, then laced her fingers with Ezra's, and pulled him into her classroom, shutting the door behind them. She went and sat on the desk, looking Ezra in the eyes. "About last night..."

_Here it comes. _Ezra thought to himself. The part where she breaks his heart all over again. He let out a breath, and looked down at their hands.

"Hey. I'm not going to say that." Aria knew exactly what he was thinking, just by the expression on his face. They were both able to do that with each other. "I want you to know that I regret _nothing_. But, if we keep going down this road, things aren't going to be easy." She brought her free hand up to his cheek, and stroked it tenderly. Ezra smiled.

"Things have never been easy with us, have they? I think I'm used to it." He chuckled. Aria freed her hand from his, wrapped it around his neck and placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

Before she could enjoy the feeling of his lips on hers again, Aria pulled away faster than she meant to.

Her cheeks were tinged red.

"It's okay, that I do that, right?" She asked bashfully.

"What, kiss me?" Ezra chuckled. "I think it is. Definitely okay."

She laughed and kissed him again, loving the familiarity of the action.

"Good, because I intend on doing that quite often." Aria smiled as Ezra placed a couple quick kisses on her lips, savouring the freedom that came with each one.

"Ezra, can I ask you a question?" Aria asked.

"Shoot."

"Would it be absolutely horrible of me to ask you to come to my parent's house on Friday?"

Ezra thought about it for a second before answering. "If you want me to come, of course I will... but why would it be horrible of you?"

"Because I'm pretty sure that you don't have your heart set on getting punched by my dad." Aria whispered. "He's not going to be thrilled that you're James' father."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take. Byron's going to find out one way or another, and I'd prefer if he found out from me, rather than him coming and busting my apartment door down or something." Ezra shuddered at the thought of how Byron would react, but pushed the thought out of his mind. No need to worry about it now, he had four days to avoid the topic. "My turn."

Aria looked up at him. "For what?"

"A question." She nodded for him to continue. "Where does this leave us?"

"Until Friday, a secret. Stuff flies around Rosewood pretty fast; I don't want my parents hearing anything before I tell them _myself_."

Ezra kissed her gently on the forehead. "Sounds good to me."


	9. Chapter 9

For the third time in one week, Ezra stood nervously at Aria's door, fidgeting with his tie. As much as he tried, no matter what happened the week seemed to zip by, and it was already Friday night. Ezra had spent most of his week either with Aria at Rosewood high, prepping for the approaching school year, or over at Aria's house spending time with James.

Ezra reached up and knocked on the door. In all honesty, he was probably more nervous at this moment then he'd been the previous two times he'd knocked on her door. Tonight things were going to change; tonight Aria's parents were going to find out about who James' father really is, and the truth was it terrified Ezra. He could only imagine how mad Byron had been when he'd told them he was in love with Aria, and the backlash from that was unimaginable. But to have him and Ella find out that he's James' father? There was no way this was going to be a peaceful family dinner.

Aria opened the door, wearing a black dress with bright red heels; her hair curled and left draping down her back. "You sure clean up nice, Fitz." She smiled, and opened the door, signaling him to come in.

Ezra took a step in the door. "You look beautiful." Aria bit her bottom lip and blushed, grabbing her purse and shoving her iPhone inside.

"Where's James?" Just as Ezra asked, James came thumping down the stairs, in a little blue dress shirt and black pants, waving a small tie in his right hand. "Hi daddy!" Two steps before the bottom, he leapt off, rocketing himself into Ezra's arms.

"Hey buddy! What do you have there?" Ezra picked up the tie James was holding, playfully wagging it in the air.

"It's my tie! We'll match daddy!" James said, extending his arms to try and snatch his tie back from his dad. Ezra chuckled and set his son down on the ground. "Here, let me tie it for you." Ezra straightened the tie, and James stepped back to get approval from his mom.

"Don't you look good Jamie? You two are so handsome!" She walked over and picked James up, grabbing her keys. "But if we don't leave now, we're going to be late for dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's!"

The trio headed to Aria's car; Aria and Ezra had decided earlier that week that they were going to show up in her car... If there were two cars, or they went in Ezra's, her parents might catch on before they're told anything.

The car ride there was a short and silent one; James was amusing himself by playing with one of his toys, and Aria and Ezra were both mulling over what might happen after breaking the news of James' parentage to Ella and Byron.

Ezra was almost sure that Byron was going to attempt to punch him, and he was completely sure that there was going to be yelling and screaming. His only hope was that Jamie would act as a buffer, possibly keeping Ella and Byron calm. _Wow, there's a great thought, using my son to keep me from getting my ass kicked. Good job Ezra. _

Aria pulled into her parent's driveway, reminiscing of the last time she had been there nearly a year before. "Jamie sweetie, you're going to stay out on the front porch for a few minutes, Mommy has to talk to Grandma and Grandpa first. Okay?"

James nodded, making one of his cars soar through the air. "Is this cause of daddy?" Aria let out a breath, looking at Ezra. "Yeah baby, it is, but it's no big deal, okay? Don't worry." She leaned over to the back seat and kissed James on the forehead. "I'll see you in a few minutes." Then she leaned over and gave Ezra a quick peck on the lips. "Wish me luck." She sighed and grabbed the keys from the ignition, hopping out of the car and striding towards the house.

"Are you and Momma gonna be like this from now on?" James asked, his voice laced with innocence. "Like what, buddy?"

"Y'know. All kissy and stuff." The little boy wrinkled his face in disgust. "It's gross."

Ezra chuckled. The purity of children was absolutely amazing. "Maybe buddy. We'll see." Ezra watched as Aria knocked on the door, and Ella opening it, allowing her daughter in. "Okay James, that's our cue. We've got to go wait on the porch now, but you have to be quiet until Mom lets us know it's okay."

"Aria, honey! Don't you look beautiful?" Aria shut the door behind her, giving her mom a giant hug. "Thanks mom."

Ella took a step back, expecting another hug; but this time from a small four year old boy. She hesitated when nothing came. "Where's Jamie? Normally I get my hug now."

Aria paused, her mouth slightly agape. _Oh god._ She was starting to panic. Even though she'd though about what she was going to say nearly every day for the entire week, when the time game the words escaped her. "Mom I need to tell you and dad something; it's important."

Ella's cheerful demeanor quickly vanished as she called her husband into the living room to join them. "Is there something wrong with James?" Ella asked nervously. Aria shook her head vigorously. "No, no... In fact he's absolutely overjoyed and he'll join us in a few minutes. He's outside right now."

Byron wore a quizzical expression as he sat himself down on the sofa. "You left him alone outside?"

"Oh no, he's not alone. Don't worry about that right now." She had a pleading look in her eyes, and took a deep breath before she began. "Before I tell you anything, I need to tell you how this is one hundred percent my fault; he had no choice in anything. If you can only take one thing from what I'm about to tell you, it's that noneof this is his fault. Promise me that."

Ella and Byron sat motionless, unable to respond. Deciding that their silence was to be taken as a yes, Aria continued. "Remember how I told you about how I left James' father because he wasn't the guy I thought he was, and that I wasn't happy with him? That was a complete and utter lie. I left James' father because I was afraid; afraid of you, afraid of Rosewood, and afraid for James' dad. I left him because I thought I was doing the right thing for him, and because I didn't want to destroy his life because I was pregnant with his child."

" So I kept James a secret. He didn't know until last Saturday when I ran into him. He had no idea that he had a son; and not only that but I had plenty of opportunities to tell him. After he picked up on the fact that I wasn't coming back to him, he called, texted, emailed me, you name it. I was a coward, and because of it both he and my son have suffered." Aria looked up, sneaking a look at her parents' faces. Their expressions were indescribable. Finding out that after all this time Aria had lied to them had hit them like a ton of bricks. After James had been born, they swore to no more secrets in the Montgomery family; secrets seemed to tear their family apart.

"But this past week I couldn't deny him the right to be in his son's life. It's my fault, not his, and he's been nothing but an amazing father to James. Every time I see him look at his son, I can see the love and admiration he already has for our boy, and that's undeniable. All I'm asking is that you accept him to be a part of mine and Jamie's life, and even if you don't, he will still continue to be with us. All I'm asking is that you come to accept this, not even agree with it. But for Jamie's sake, please keep an open mind, and don't freak out."

Leaving her parents sitting in silence, Aria strode over to the front door and opened it, to see a very nervous looking Ezra holding James in his arms. "Come in." She murmured. Ezra strode in nervously, not wanting to see Ella and Byron's reactions.

As soon as Byron laid eyes on Ezra, he spoke. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

James leaned into his dad. "Daddy, what does that mean?" He whispered.

"It's a bad word Jamie, don't say it, okay?" Ezra told him.

Ella stood up, not looking angry or disgruntled. "Hey buddy! Long time no see! You wanna come with Grandma and help me with something?" She asked, clearly looking for an excuse to get James out of the room. Ezra put James down, and the little boy ran to his Grandma, giving her a huge hug. "Yeah! Let's go Grandma Ella!" She led James out of the room and into the kitchen, but shot Aria and Ezra a look that said 'I'll deal with you later.'

"Dad, he's James' father. We were together before I left for university, and I was eighteen at the time. Ezra can't possibly get in legal trouble. Yell at me all you want, but he's going to be in James' life, and mine, no matter how you feel about it." Feeling a sense of déjà vu, she laced her fingers with Ezra's.

"So this just keeps getting better... " He turned to look at Ezra, raising his voice. "Get out of my house. I don't want you here, and I sure as hell don't want you near my daughter or grandson. Leave. Now. This is a family dinner, and you'll never be a part of this family."

Having overheard the conversation from the kitchen, James proudly walked over to Byron, and stood up as straight as he could, attempting to look his grandpa in the eyes. "Just because you don't like daddy doesn't mean you can make him go away. I won't let you. Daddy plays cars with me and tells me stories, and is the best daddy ever. He's part of me and momma's family now." James simply walked over to his dad and hugged his legs, as that was how high he could reach. Nothing was said but Ezra flashed Byron a 'well look at that' look.

Instead of stopping to think about what his grandson had just told him, he continued on talking, this time more quietly with a threatening tone lacing his words.

"I remember very clearly telling you to stay away from my daughter, and know that no matter who you are to her or my family, my opinion on you won't budge. I don't like you, I don't like how you've affected my family, and I certainly don't like your hold on my daughter." He spit out.

That was something Aria wouldn't tolerate. She took a step towards her dad.

"Hold? What hold dad? You have no idea what you're talking about. You haven't even seen him around James, and you haven't even truly seen him around me. All those years ago you judged our relationship without a second glance; you couldn't see how much we loved each other, or how real it was. You couldn't see how I loved him, and how I probably will never love someone as much as I love him. Don't you dare pass judgement on him again."

Aria looked like she was about to lunge at her dad, and Ezra had never seen her this angry. Gently he grabbed her arm and pulled her back towards him a James.

"Thank you." He whispered in her ear, trying to calm her down. Sure enough, he did.

Ella walked out and stood by her husband's side, trying to do the same thing.

"Byron, let's be reasonable. Making them leave the house isn't going to do anyone any good." She coaxed. "Ezra is going to be in their lives whether we like it or not; this is something we can't ignore or make it go away. It's one dinner, not like they're moving in with us." Aria was completely blown away by her mother's response; not even in her wildest dreams had she come up with a better reaction. But she also knew that this wasn't all Ella had to say, that she was probably going to talk to Aria privately at some point.

Byron stood in complete and utter silence, his mouth slightly open. While part of him wanted to refuse Ella's idea, he knew deep down that it was the truth. If Ezra was James' father, there was no possible way he wasn't going to be in James and Aria's lives. No matter how hard it stung his pride, he knew Ella was right. Sighing in defeat, Byron gave in.

"Fine. The roast is almost done anyways, and Ella and I can't eat it all by ourselves."

Aria and Ezra looked at each other. While there was still a thick layer of tension in the room, things had gone better than they had thought they would.

_And there wasn't a single punch thrown._ Ezra thought happily to himself.

That's not to say that dinner went along smoothly. Throughout the meal the tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife, and there were plenty of awkward bumps in conversation, as well as plenty of glares from Byron, but over all things had gone okay.

"At one point we were thinking of ordering Chinese Food," Ella said as she started taking finished plates off the table. "Because we know that it's your favourite Jamie." James wore a huge grin on his face.

"Well this was just as good Grandma."

Ezra looked at Aria and smiled. "Really? Chinese food is his favourite? How ironic." Aria looked up and met his eyes. "I know right?" She giggled.

Byron and Ella remained clueless to their inside joke.

"How so?" Byron asked, struggling to find the irony. Aria and Ezra both remained silent.

"Well, we used to eat Chinese food all the time at Ezra's apartment. Almost every Saturday." Aria cautiously said. _Hey, Ella said no more secrets, so here we go._ She thought to herself.

The look on Byron's face almost looked like he was going to explode. Quickly, Ezra got up.

"I'll help you with the dishes Ella." Ezra didn't want to be there for another question like that. He could see that Byron was almost at his limit of hearing about his daughter's past relationship with him.

Grabbing the remaining dishes of the table, he headed towards the kitchen with Ella. She tossed him a towel. "I'll wash, you'll dry." Ezra nodded, and for a few minutes they stood in silence, mindlessly cleaning plates and cutlery.

"If it had been anyone else but you I would've probably sided with Byron on the matter." Ella said quietly while sloshing a glass around in the soapy water. "I know that you're a good guy Ezra, and I know that you love my daughter, and I can see that even after a week you love James. I believe Aria in how she said you had no idea of James' existence, and I'd like to think that if you had, you would've been there every step of the way. Am I right?" She handed him the now dripping wet glass.

"Of course." He said, taking the glass from her hands. "I can promise you that if I'd known-" She cut him off with the wave of a hand.

"That's all I need to know. I'm not saying I agree with how things went about, but as I've told you before, whatever happened in the past happened. We can't change that, but we can move forward and accept what's happened." Ezra nodded, and they finished the dishes in a comfortable silence.

The trio left the Montgomery household at nearly ten o clock, with a very tired Jamie passed out asleep in the back seat, but he wasn't the only one. Aria and Ezra were both emotionally drained; tonight had taken a lot out of them, although things were starting to progress with her parents. And by parents, mainly Ella.

Byron was still remarkably unhappy with the whole situation, but that was no surprise.

Getting out of the car, Ezra carried James into the house, and then lay him down in his bed, closing the door behind them. The whole scene between Byron, Aria and himself had probably been a tad traumatic for him being four, but Ezra was sure that it wouldn't bother him that much. Walking down the stairs, Ezra grabbed his coat off the side of the banister, and went to go grab his keys that he'd left on the kitchen counter. On his way there he found Aria sitting on the couch, looking exhausted.

"Want to sit with me for a few minutes?" She asked, her eyes blinking to keep themselves open.

"Of course." Ezra murmured, and he placed his jacket on the counter, and went to sit down on the couch. Aria curled up to his side; this had come to be their routine now. "Well that was interesting." She murmured into his chest. Ezra kissed her forehead. "Yeah, it was. At least I didn't get punched this time." He smiled as he said it.

"Well that was a plus." Aria yawned. "What did my mom say to you?"

"Nothing really. She just told me that she think I'm a good guy and will be there for you and James. Which I will, I promise." He whispered. It was so comfy there on the couch, and his eyes began to droop.

"I know you will."

The pair sat on the couch with Ezra gently stroking Aria's hair; he was thinking about what had transpired. One moment in particular seemed to stand out to him. _"You couldn't see how I loved him, and how I probably will never love someone as much as I love him."_ For some reason it kept playing over and over in his head, until he realized. _"...as I love him."_

Love, not loved.

Ezra grinned at himself in quiet satisfaction. Whether it had been a slip of the tongue or not, he'd keep the fact that he'd picked up on it to himself.

A few minutes later, the pair fell asleep on the couch in each other's arms, oblivious to the world.


	10. Chapter 10

Aria woke up to the smell of coffee coming from the kitchen. Sleepily, she flexed her fingers, stretching them out. What she didn't expect was to grab Ezra's shirt. Lifting herself upright, she realized she'd fallen asleep on his chest.

_Oh, shit. _

Feeling Aria shift off of him, Ezra opened one of his eyes.

"Morning." He blocked a couple of time, inhaling deeply before a confused expression spread across his barely awake features. "I didn't know James could make coffee." He mumbled tiredly.

Aria's eyes widened at the comment. Of course he couldn't make coffee... he's four. The better question was who did? Aria pushed herself off Ezra's lap, and turned to look to the kitchen.

Sitting at one of the chairs reading a fashion magazine was a very smug looking Hanna.

"Good morning sunshine! Looks like you two had a good sleep!" She said with utter joy radiating from her.

Aria's eyes narrowed.

"Shut up! Says the girl who breaks and enters into people's houses. There's this thing called knocking, have you heard of it?" Aria got off the couch and grabbed a hair tie from the coffee table, pulling her hair up into a messy bun.

"Wow, there's a good idea, I never thought of that one Ar!" Hanna let out a breath rolling her eyes. "You told me on Thursday that I could take James for the day and I know how early he gets up so I got here around seven thirty. When no one answered, I let myself in. Turned out he was still asleep, so I let him be."

Aria grumbled a little and helped herself to some coffee. She'd totally forgotten that Hanna was going to take James out.

"Ezra, you want some coffee?" She asked over her shoulder. He mumbled a yes, so she filled a cup and made her way over to the couch again. "I'm going to get changed out of this dress I'll be back down in a few minutes." Aria handed him his coffee and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before heading upstairs.

As soon as Aria had gone upstairs, Hanna walked over to Ezra. "Morning Fitzy!" Ezra stretched out on the couch, rubbing his eyes.

"Morning, Hanna." He managed to get out. The morning was definitely not the best time for small talk.

"I need a favour from you." She said, sitting herself down on the arm of the couch. Ezra motioned for her to continue. "I need you to be out of the house by ten. Spencer's going to prepare Aria for your date."

"Our... date?" Ezra scrunched his eyebrows together, trying to remember when he and Aria had talked about a date. Running his hand through his hair, he sighed. "Maybe it's too early in the morning for me to remember... But what date?

"The date Spencer and I have been planning for you two." Hanna stated in a matter of fact tone. She leaned forward and grabbed another magazine off the coffee table and began flipping through it. "Spencer will text you and fill you in on the plans later."

Ezra just sat speechless; Hanna and Spencer had decided to take things into their own hands. Instead of asking Hanna the multitude of questions that he were brewing in his mind, he just nodded.

Not asking anything would make his life much easier.

"Wait, how did Spencer get my number?" He asked, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Oh, we took it of Aria's phone last week." Hanna stated nonchalantly, picking up another magazine. Clearly it bore her, so she put it down and looked Ezra in the eyes. "You'll be good for her Ezra. She hasn't had a sense of stability or safety in her life for a long time." She shot him a smile before going back to her normal Hanna-y self. "Besides, she's been the lonely one it our group for too long. Having-" Aria came back down just as Hanna was in the middle of her sentence.

"Okay, Hanna, stop talking. The moment I hear you telling him about be being 'lonely'," she put air quotations as she said it; "I need to intervene. Besides, I've had James." Aria stated in mock defense, going and grabbing her coffee from the kitchen counter.

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well I'm not talking about _that_ type of lonely Ar. I mean how long has it been since-" Aria's eyes widened.

"You know what Han? I think it's time for you to go!" She spat, smacking her friend with a rolled up magazine.

"I was going to say since you've had a boyfriend, get your mind out of the gutter." Hanna sighed, springing off of the couch. "We might as well get going soon anyways. Did you get Jamie up?"

Aria nodded. "He'll be down in a couple minutes. Where are you taking him today anyways?"

"I'm taking him to a fair in Philly. Today's the second last day that it's open, and I thought James would have a good time. There'll be plenty of stuff to entertain him with all day. What about you two, what are you guys up to today?" replied Hanna.

"Well I'm going to Hardy's around noon." Ezra said, looking to Hanna as he said it. She gave him a subtle nod.

Not even noticing the mute conversation that had transpired, Aria spoke up."While I was upstairs Spencer texted me about going for a mani-pedi today; too bad you can't go Hanna. Maybe I could ask Spencer to reschedule and we'll make it a girl's day or something?"

Lifting her hands up, Hanna shook her head. "No, that's okay. I just got mine done last night. You go with Spencer." She looked over to the staircase to see James galloping down it. "Besides, I've got a day planned with my favourite nephew!" Hanna said, extending her arms outward.

"Auntie Nan!" James exclaimed, running to her and giving her a hug. "Are we gonna go now?" He asked excitedly, tugging at her hand.

"Yeah, we have to get going buddy, it'll take us a while to get to Philly, and gates open at nine. Say bye to your mom and dad, and then we'll take off." James had a huge smile across his face as he ran and hugged both his parents.

"Bye momma, bye dad!" The little boy ran across the house to the front door, where Hanna was holding a small backpack packed with stuff for their day.

"Bye guys! I'll drop him off later tonight." Aria and Ezra both sat on the couch, facing the door as it closed.

"Well that was... eventful." Aria uttered. She shifted to face Ezra, who was smiling. "What are you smiling at?" Her question only seemed to make him grin more.

"Nothing, I just think you look beautiful this morning." Ezra said, and leaned in and placed a kiss on her forehead.

Blushing, Aria got up from the couch and started to head towards the kitchen. "So what do you want for breakfast? All I really have is Cheerios, is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, that's fine with me." He said, following her into the kitchen, still smiling. He thought about how exactly one week ago today, Cheerios had brought him to this point; standing in Aria's kitchen, with the pair of them together again, and having a son that he was now going to be able to watch grow up. Cheerios were more than fine with him.

Almost three hours later, Aria and Spencer were sitting in a salon in Rosewood, getting their nails done.

"So what exactly went down last night with your parents? Did they have a heart attack when Ezra walked in?" Spencer asked while flipping to the next page of her book.

"Well, my dad freaked out, but my mom actually didn't look like she was going to kill me, or Ezra, which was surprising. Ella even talked to Ezra one on one basically telling him that she thinks he'll be good for me, and that she trusts him, so that's a good sign." Aria giggled; she was never good with getting pedicures, her feet were extremely ticklish. After regaining her composure, she continued. "Although by the end of the night my dad looked like he was going to kill someone."

"Well at least Ezra didn't get punched this time." Spencer pointed out.

Aria nodded in response. "True. Enough about me and Ezra; how're things with you and Toby?" As soon as Aria had mentioned Toby, her friend's face lit up.

"Honestly, things are amazing Ar. I couldn't ask for anything better, I really couldn't." She sighed in content. "He just lights up my day. I wake up next to him and it just puts a smile on my face."

Hearing Spencer talk about Toby reminded Aria of when thinking of Ezra did the same thing to her; back when they were head over heels in love with each other.

Memories began flashing past so quickly in her mind, she barely had time to consider them all. Most were of moments in the apartment or them on their first date, or the first time they met. The whole event went though her mind in a few short seconds. She felt a small pang in her chest when she remembered how things used to be. Quickly pushing the feeling aside, she brought herself back into focus to see Spencer staring at her.

"What just happened? You went from looking like you'd won a million dollars to looking like you'd just seen a ghost."

Aria just shook her head, and put her left foot back into the warm water while the woman started on her right.

"Nothing, just thinking about Ezra and I, don't worry about it." She flashed her friend a wavering smile, which Spencer caught onto immediately. Spencer gave her a look, and Aria sighed and explained what happened. "I was remembering that feeling I'd get when I'd get up on Saturdays and know that I'd get to spend the whole day with Ezra, or that I'd get to see him that day. I'm happy you have that with Toby, Spence, it's an amazing feeling."

Spencer looked at her page number before closing her book and setting it aside.

"Aria, when we were in high school, you and Ezra were like, the dream couple in our group. You're worrying about not being able to get back to that?" Aria just sat in silence, taking in what Spencer had said. "And you're worrying about this because you don't want it, or...?"

"Because I don't deserve it." Aria mumbled. Which was the truth; she honestly thought she didn't deserve Ezra for everything she had put him through.

"I'm telling you this because I love you Aria: You deserve it. You've raised James by yourself for four years, and you've-"

"So what if I've raised James by myself, that's_ my_ fault." Before she could continue, Spencer held up the hand that wasn't being painted.

"Can you wait for me to finish?" Aria stayed silent while biting her lip, indicating for to Spencer to continue.

"You've had a couple of relationships in the past five years, and all have failed. There was that guy Brian in college, who turned out to be a jerk. Then you went out with... Collin I think it was? Yeah, well that went downhill fast as well. And last but not least, who am I missing?" Spencer asked in mock innocence.

Aria shot Spencer a death glare, mouthing 'stop'.

"Oh! Right! Then there was the messiest of all, when you got yourself into all that trouble with-" Aria smacked Spencer's left arm. "Don't you understand stop? I get your point; I've had some shitty relationships since Ezra."

Spencer looked at her right hand, which the woman was finishing off. "You could've messed up my nails Aria!" She pouted. "And that's not my point. My point is that ever since Ezra things haven't really gone that smoothly. But now that he's a part of your life again, watch as things will stay on track. You're the only guy you've been happy with, and the only one who you can honestly say you were in love with. You deserve some stability in your life." Spencer paused and grabbed her book back, flipping it open again. "And you really need to hop off the self loathing train Aria; you can only ride it for so long. Let it go."

The pair sat in a comfortable silence for the next few minutes, while getting the finishing touches on their nails and toes. Spencer was finishing off the last few pages off her book, and Aria was considering what her best friend had told her. When they were finished, Spencer had pastel pink on her nails and a bright red on her toes, while Aria had a matching deep red on both her nails and toes.

The quiet was broken when Spencer's phone vibrated.

**What time are you bringing Aria over? – Ezra**

Quickly she typed back a response.

**Well, it's about 11 now, so we're probably going to go shopping, and then I'll get her ready... So 5-ish? –Spencer **

"Toby?" Aria asked, examining her finger nails.

"Mhm. He wants to know if he has to pick up anything for dinner." Aria nodded, and checked her phone. No missed alerts, which was a bit strange considering normally Ezra texted her off and on throughout the day. She shrugged, and put her phone back into her purse.

It was almost four-o-clock when Aria and Spencer left the mall. Both came out of the mall carrying a handful of bags each; Spencer had gotten a black skirt and a deep purple dress, along with a pair of flats. Aria on the other hand had bought a navy blue off the shoulder top as well as a pair of studded black heels.

"Do you want to just drop me off at home?" Aria asked, sitting herself down in the passenger's seat of Spencer's car. "I'm exhausted."

"No, we're not done our girls day yet! We've got our nails done and bought new clothes, but now we have to get all dolled up!" Spencer whined. She needed reasons to keep Aria around until five, when she'd blindfold her and take her to Ezra's apartment.

"Please Spence? I still have James to look after, but hopefully he'll be tired out from being with Hanna all day." Aria leaned her head against the window. She hoped James would be tired; there was no way she had the energy after shopping all day to keep up with a four year old at the moment.

"Nope. My car, my rules! Anyways, I have a surprise waiting for you." Spencer said. Aria sighed, clearly she was being dragged to Spencer's whether she liked it or not.

It turned out that going to Spencer's wasn't the worst thing ever, as lying on Spencer's bed was a brand new dress. Mouth open, Aria picked up the garment; it was pitch black with sparkles dotting the fabric.

"Okay, Spence, this is for me?" Aria asked, stunned. The dress was _gorgeous._ Spencer nodded excitedly. "I can't take this, I really can't. It's absolutely stunning, but you should've at least let me pay for lunch or something!"

"Actually, it's from Hanna. She told me to tell you that it's your 'welcome home' present, just a couple weeks late. One of the many perks of having a best friend in the fashion industry I guess." Idly, Spencer strode across the room and started looking through Aria's shopping bags, pulling out the pair of heels she'd bought. She held them out towards her friend. "These would go perfectly. Try it on, try it on!" Spencer squealed.

Aria let out a breath; there was no way she was going to end up winning this battle. Quickly she stripped her clothes off and slid the dress on over her head, and slipped her feet in her new heels. She turned to face Spencer.

"Well?"

Spencer stood speechless. "That looks freaking amazing Aria, it's like the dress was made for you. You look beautiful!" Aria walked over to the mirror on the other side of the room, and she had to admit, the dress fit her perfectly. "Now we have to do your hair and make-up!" Aria knew that this was another lost battle as well, so she allowed Spencer to curl her hair and apply some make-up. Aria sat patiently in Spencer and Toby's master bathroom while Spencer went to work.

The whole process was completed a half hour later, and Spencer finally allowed Aria to take a look in the mirror.

"Oh my gosh, Spencer, this looks amazing!" Aria nervously bit her lip. "It's weird... Ezra hasn't texted me, and now I have to go home after you put in all this work and then sit at home on my couch watching the Notebook or something after I put James to bed. Maybe I'll call him and see what he's doing tonight?" Aria reached for her phone when Spencer snatched it first.

"No texting or calling Ezra. There's still the last part of the surprise for you to go through. But I need you to put this on." Spencer handed her an eye mask, normally used for sleeping.

Aria gave Spencer a quizzical look before taking it from her friend.

"Don't put it on until we're in the car, okay? No falling down the stairs or anything after I spent all this time dolling you up." Aria and Spencer headed out the door and into Spencer's Camry, with Aria completely unaware of what Spencer was leading her into. After about five minutes of driving, a blinded Aria broke the silence.

"What about James? Hanna's going to drop him off to an empty house?" She inquired.

"No, Hanna's having him sleep over at her house. But if she'd told you that you might've caught on before you were supposed to." Aria could feel Spencer ease up on the gas and heard the signal flick on.

_Tick, tick, tick, tick._

"You could've had Ezra look after him, you know."

Spencer shook her head before remembering that Aria couldn't see. "No, he's busy tonight. We asked him first." The signal turned off, and Aria could feel the car come to a stop.

"Are we here?"

Spencer muttered a yes before stepping over to the passenger's side and leading a very untrusting Aria into the apartment complex.

"Okay, don't let me run into anything." Aria almost shrieked. Spencer let out a grunt, and began to lead Aria towards the staircase. As this happened, things started to click in Aria's mind; the clack of the door closing after they'd got into the building, the ding of an elevator further down the hall, and even the clicking of her heels on the floor seemed familiar, but she couldn't place exactly why they seemed so familiar to her.

"We're going up stairs now, so just take your time." Spencer said in a low voice, while tugging Aria's arm to the left.

After three flights of stairs, and multiple times where Aria had almost fallen all the way back down, Spencer felt pretty proud of herself for delivering Aria in one piece. She led Aria to the front door of Ezra's apartment, and then rapped on the door twice. As Spencer knocked, she took her hand off Aria's arm, leaving her standing there, blind.

"Spence?" Aria called out, but she could hear a quiet patting of footsteps trailing down the left of the hallway. Her suspicions were confirmed when she heard the door that they had come through moments before open and close.

Just as she was about to take the blindfold off, the door opened. Quietly and gently as he could, Ezra pulled Aria in to his apartment. As soon as she stepped in, the whole thing clicked in her head. Ezra hadn't texted her all day, the familiarity of certain things when they'd first entered the building, and now the familiar smell and sense of safety that had washed over her the moment she stepped inside.

"Ezra?" She breathed.

Aria had her sight restored as Ezra lifted the mask off her face.

"Surprise." He whispered, and leaned down and kissed her, shutting the door behind them.


	11. Chapter 11

After she and Ezra broke apart, Aria had a look of wonder on her face. "Wow, you're good. I can't believe you managed to plan this without me knowing."

A smile tugged at Ezra's lips, a mischievous look on his face. "I actually didn't plan this. I was informed this morning, so you can thank Spencer and Hanna for tonight." He reached down and entwined his fingers with hers. She kissed him again before responding.

"Better step it up, Fitz" She giggled, leading him towards the kitchen.

The apartment looked the same as it did the last time Aria had been there; same bed, same couch, even the typewriter was in the same place. The only difference is that there were a bunch of new books lining the bookshelves, and new pieces of art scattered here and there. Now standing in the kitchen, Aria noticed for the first time that it smelled amazing in the apartment.

"Ezra Fitz, are you actually _cooking_ me dinner?" She exclaimed, poking fun at him.

"Believe it or not, I actually learned how to cook a couple things these past couple years. And by a couple I mean I managed to master the art of macaroni and cheese, and bought some cookbooks that I haven't opened until today." He grinned.

Aria smiled, playing with his fingers.

"Well what are you making tonight?" As she asked this, Aria grabbed an oven mitt from the counter with her free hand and lifted the lid off the pot closest to her. "Noodles," She quickly placed the lid back on and moved to the pan on the right side of the stove. "And sauce. So we're having some delicious pasta?" She quickly flipped the burner on under the noodles. "You know that you're supposed to boil the water, right?"

Ezra bit his lip, trying to fight back laughter. "Of course... I was just waiting. And you should be proud; I made the sauce from scratch." With their hands still together, Ezra slowly pushed Aria towards the counter. When Aria felt her back hit the edge of the counter, she let out a small gasp, and looked up at Ezra, who had a devilish glint in his eyes. He leaned down until his lips were at her ear. "Have I told you how absolutely drop dead gorgeous you look tonight?" He pulled away, and stood so close Aria could feel his breath. Satisfied with the reaction he got, Ezra started to back off a little.

"Tease." Aria whispered while grabbing the black tie around his neck and pulling him back towards her, so their lips were almost touching. They stay like that for a tense few seconds before Aria gently tugged on Ezra's tie, bringing their lips together. Aria felt Ezra's hands resting on her hips, and she quickly hopped up on the counter, bringing him closer as she did.

Their kisses quickly got more intense; Aria had her fingers grasping Ezra's hair, while he ran his tongue along her bottom lip, asking for entrance. Things heated up quickly, and ten minutes later the pair lay on the couch, just as enthralled with each other as ever. Finally Aria broke away, smiling.

"What are you smiling at?" Ezra mumbled while trailing kisses up her neck. She brought his head back up to look her in the eyes.

"I've missed this; I've missed _you._" Ezra sat up, pulling Aria with him. He rested his forehead against hers.

"You're lucky, because I'm not going anywhere." She placed a chaste kiss on his lips, and looked towards the kitchen where the pot of noodles was steaming.

Quickly she jumped off the couch and ran to the stove. "Shit." Grabbing the lid off the pot, she quickly emptied out the boiling water into the sink, and set the pot back on the burner. "Well, I hope you don't mind mushy noodles."

Ezra came over, and surveyed the damage. "Well it's clearly not _my_ fault that our dinner is going to be served extra mushy." He joked.

Feigning mock hurt, Aria played along.

"Care to explain how this is my fault?"

"Well, if you hadn't have looked so gorgeous in this dress, I wouldn't have had to tease you, in which you wouldn't have kissed me to the point where we were too... preoccupied to think about dinner." Ezra retorted, an impish grin on his face.

Aria snorted, and began scooping the noodles onto plates. Just as quickly as she'd started, Ezra came up behind her, grabbing her waist. "I thought I was making dinner." He said, taking the spoon from her hand, and pushing her aside.

"I figured I'd better step in if we wanted to have any dinner at all." She shot back, planting a kiss on his cheek before going to sit on the couch.

Moments later Ezra brought two plates of pasta along with two glasses of wine and set them down on the table. "Dinner is served." Aria hesitantly took a forkful of pasta, and brought it up to her mouth, taking a bite.

"Mmm... It's not as bad as you think it'd be. The sauce is actually good. Good job, baby." The pair dined while making small talk; discussing how Aria still had to run and grab school supplies for James or talked about recent books they'd read.

With dinner finished, they lay on the couch with Aria leaning against Ezra's chest, who was absent-mindedly fiddling with her hair.

She could feel him stop for a moment, and felt his breath at her ear.

"As sexy as you look in that dress, what do you say we change into something more comfortable?" He suggested, placing his wine glass on the coffee table. Aria nodded, and Ezra went over to his dresser and grabbed a pair of pyjamas and an old Hollis hoodie. He tossed them both to Aria before turning to grab himself something.

Aria inhaled the scent from the hoodie; she was sure it was one that she'd worn hundreds of times before, lounging around the apartment on a lazy Saturday. She quickly hopped out of her dress and managed to pull on the bottoms before Ezra turned around; who was now changed out of his white dress shirt and black pants into an old baby blue tee and an old pair of pyjama bottoms.

He stood there for a fraction of a second, his mouth slightly ajar. "Uhm... okay." Was all he could muster as a response.

Aria pulled the hoodie over her head while striding towards him. "Nothing you haven't seen before." She said, a coy smile spreading across her face. Ezra let out an exasperated gasp, before playfully grabbing Aria by the shoulders and twisting so she landed on top of him while he fell onto his unmade bed.

"Now who's the tease?" He whispered jokingly.

While their tongues danced, a brief flicker of worry went through Aria's mind; but she dismissed it. She was pretty sure that she and Ezra knew each other's boundaries; there was no need for a repeat of what had happened last time. She could feel Ezra's hands gently running across the bottom of his Hollis sweater, and Aria was finding her hands were starting to drift as well.

Pausing for a second the both pulled back to look at each other. A silent conversation transpired, and they both came to a non-verbal agreement. Ezra leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on her forehead.

"Come here." He said, pulling her up off the bed with him. He walked over to the couch, and brought her back into his arms. He never wanted this moment to end, to feel like things had finally clicked back into place after five years of feeling wrong.

His apartment seemed to come alive again with Aria's presence.

"I've missed you." He murmured into her hair.

"I've missed you too Ezra. So much."

_I don't deserve someone so amazing. _Aria thought to herself; but before she could let her thoughts take control, she thought of what Spencer had told her earlier that day.

_It's just me and Ezra right now, and I won't feel guilty right now. I can feel guilty in the morning. _To block her thoughts out, she just leaned her head on Ezra's shoulder, grateful for the comfort she got from such a simple action.

She could feel Ezra's mouth at her ear, as if he were going to tell her something. Instead of provoking him to tell her, she waited, enjoying the silence. It was nice to be able to share silence with someone. Being able to talk for hours was nice, but being able to just sit and enjoy each other's presence... that was something that was hard to find.

"I don't know if I'm allowed to say this-"

Ezra cut her off.

"You're allowed to say whatever you need to, Aria."

She felt his thumb graze the back of her hand, moving in slow circles, comforting her.

"I'm sorry-"

"You're not allowed to say that."

She twisted around to look at him, desperate to get him to understand. 'I'm sorry' wasn't just an idol apology, she felt like she had to say that to him every day for as long as he'd let her. Even then it wouldn't be enough. 'I'm sorry' wouldn't bring five years back, the five years that she'd taken away.

"Look at me, Aria Montgomery." He took her face in his hands. "I don't ever want to hear you say you're sorry again." He pressed his lips to her with such fervour it surprised her.

He pulled away a second later, leaving her breathless.

"I lov- care about you so much Aria, please, don't do this to yourself. I won't let you."

He held her close, savouring the moment.

"Haven't I told you that you're not allowed to do this?" She muttered, leaning her head into his chest. "You say all these sweet things to me Ezra, when I've told you I don't deserve them."

Ezra wrapped his arms around Aria's small frame, holding her close. "I don't just say them, I mean them as well. That's another thing we're adding to the list of things you're not allowed to say."

To see her like this killed Ezra inside, to think that she didn't deserve love and happiness. If Ezra could have his way, he'd go through anything just to see her smile. To him, she deserved that at least.

He placed a loving kiss on her forehead. "You think you don't deserve happiness, but you're wrong. If there's anyone who deserves it it's you. If you're happy, then so am I; and you're not allowed to fight me on that point, because I will win." Aria opened her mouth to say something, but Ezra stopped her before she could start by placing a kiss on her lips.

Sighing in defeat, Aria nuzzled up to Ezra. "Tell me something I don't know about you."

Confused, Ezra asked what she meant. "There has to be things we don't know about each other, Ezra. In five years something has to have changed. One thing, that's all you have to think of."

Ezra scanned the room, trying to think of something that had changed. His eyes landed on the old typewriter. "You know the old typewriter I have over there? That I use as a paper weight?"

Aria nodded.

"Mhm. I used it." He took a breath. "To write, I mean. Just everything. Anything really. If it captivated my interest, I recorded it. Just observations, but they all had some kind of impact on me. I had no intentions to publish or do anything with what I'd written; the excerpts were just for me."

He swallowed hard, trying to weigh her reaction. He'd never told anyone that. Not even Hardy.

"If you're writing for yourself, it's pure passion." Aria recited, remembering how Ezra had told her that the first time they'd met in the bar.

Ezra raised an eyebrow, a wistful expression crossing his face.

"But one day the typewriter broke. The keys stopped working, and I haven't written anything since." He reached over to the coffee table and grabbed an old bottle of water. "How's that for something you didn't know?"

"I bet it was good." She said, but then noted the puzzled expression on Ezra's face. "You're writing. When you talk about it, you have an expression that I only see under a few circumstances: When you're talking about something you love when you teach, when you read a really good book, or when you look at James. All things that you care deeply about."

Ezra gazed at Aria, reveling in the fact that she'd missed one major thing. "You're missing one thing though, you."

He was surprised that she'd skip over herself.

Aria shook her head, trying to keep back a smile, and ended up having to bite her lip to stop herself.

"Nope. I get a different expression all together." She said, allowing her smile to break through, and she leaned up and kissed him. "My turn."

"For what?"

Aria giggled. "For you to ask me a question. I have things you don't know about me too, you know." She teased.

"I can pin-point exactly how you've changed. You're stronger, having to raise James. You're more resilient than ever, after having to push through challenges." He paused, thinking about his words carefully before continuing. "But you're also broken, and I'm not one hundred percent sure why; nor am I going to ask you. I don't know if it's because of me, or has to do with you forgiving yourself... But if you ever want to tell me, you know that I'm here."

Aria just stared, dumbstruck. He'd been able to hit those points in a second, while she was having trouble picking out things after being around him for over two weeks. He was right, she was broken, and she knew it. But in Aria's mind, she was better off not dwelling on that fact.

Seeing that he was triumphant, Ezra wore a cocky grin. "Anything else you'd like to add?"

Aria crinkled her nose. "You just ruined a perfectly sweet moment by being a smart-ass." The both laughed, and then stayed up until nearly one in the morning telling each other stories about things they'd missed in each other's lives. The discussed little things, such as Ezra adding a new book to his all time favourites, to bigger things such as Aria telling her parents when she found out she was pregnant with James.

"I found a guy who went to Hollis with the same last name as you, just on Facebook. I told them he was the father. You two looked remarkably similar, he could pass as James' father. That's how they never realized. It took a lot of convincing, and I'm not sure they ever fully believed me." She brushed a piece of hair out of his eyes; not a necessary action, one of comfort and care. "But I suppose ignorance is bliss."

The pair's idle chatter slowed as the night faded into the early hours of the morning.

Both Aria and Ezra were starting to drift off to sleep when Aria had the sense to get off the couch. Two nights in a row sleeping on a couch couldn't be comfortable. She dragged Ezra by his arm along with her.

"Come sleep with me." She mumbled while lifting the comforter up for her to crawl in.

Ezra had a mischievous expression on his face. "If you insist..." He began kissing down Aria's neck as they crawled into bed. Playfully Aria smacked his chest.

"Smart-ass. You know what I mean."

Ezra let out a tired laugh. "I know. Come here."

Aria curled up against his chest, and Ezra clicked off the lamp beside them, and they started to drift off to sleep.

_What a perfect night._ Was Ezra's last thought before he fell into a deep slumber, holding Aria close in his arms.


	12. Chapter 12

The rest of the weekend passed within a blink of an eye, and Aria found herself rushing around the house Monday morning. In an effort to collect her scattered lesson plan and get all of James' school supplies in one place, Aria found that even though she'd woken up extra early, she was still going to be late.

"Finally." she sighed as she managed to snag the last paper off her desk. Aria silently shut the door behind her as she started towards the kitchen, and then poured herself a cup of coffee.

Taking a sip of her coffee, Aria took a look at the clock over top of the stove. Seven o clock. _Time to wake Jamie up. _Sluggishly making her way up the stairs, Aria opened James' bedroom door to a huge surprise.

"Morning Momma!" James said ecstatically. Aria raised an eyebrow, noticing that her son was already dressed, hair brushed and had his backpack ready to go, leaning up against his bedpost.

"Morning little man. Excited are we?"

James bounced off his bed excitedly into his moms arms. "Of course! Is Daddy going to come today?" he asked with a hopeful expression.

Aria hesitated, because truthfully she'd completely forgotten about it. One of the things that had slipped her mind was asking Ezra about Jamie's first day of school. Not wanting to hurt James' feelings, she told him yes and brought him downstairs for breakfast.

As Aria poured some Lucky Charms into a bowl she texted Ezra asking him if he wanted to come over that morning and carpool to work. In the middle of her bowl oatmeal, she got a response.

**Sounds good. I'll be there in 20. One thing: where do we stand in terms of at school? People are going to notice that we're dropping off the same kid... Pretty sure that someone is going to put 2 and 2 together. -E**

Aria bit her lip in concentration. He had a point; but she was done hiding their relationship. Maybe the best thing was to just not rub it in people's faces. Play it cool.

Making up her mind, she quickly typed up a response.

"You textin' daddy?" James asked in a sing song voice.

Aria smiled and ruffled her sons' hair. Instead of coming up with a retort, he flashed her a grin that was a carbon copy of Ezra's.

Placing her phone on the counter, Aria ate another spoonful of oatmeal. "Are you happy to be in Cooper's class? You two were inseparable in preschool."

James nodded in excitement. "Yeah! I even packed my new cars to show him!"

Aria and James finished their breakfast while discussing James' first day. Just as James ran upstairs to grab his bag, Ezra came through the door.

"Good morning baby." He leaned down to give Aria a quick peck. "Are you nervous for your first day teaching?"

At the mention of her job, Aria felt butterflies swirl around in her stomach. Her conversation with James had kept her mind off things.

"I am now, thanks to you." she complained, leaning her forehead against his.

James came thumping down the stairs in a hurry. "Look daddy! Momma and I went out and got me my backpack yesterday!" he said, thrusting the bag up at his dads face.

"Whoa, awesome buddy! It's pretty cool!"

"I know." James said with a smug smile on his face. "Are we gonna go now?"

Aria leaned away from Ezra, suddenly remembering she'd left her lesson plans in the office.

"Just one second Jamie." After grabbing her stack of papers and throwing into a folder, the trio got in to Ezra's car and headed to Rosewood Day.

Pulling up, Ezra kissed James on the forehead. "I'm gonna stay here buddy. Have a good first day okay?" "I will daddy. Love you." James said, hopping out of the car.

"Love you too."

Aria hurried James into the school and walked him to class. At the sight o the classroom, James latched onto his mom's leg. "Momma I'm nervous." he whispered. Aria bent down and gave her son a hug.

"James William Fitz, I'm sure you'll do fine. You want to hear a secret?"

James stood silent, signaling for her to continue. "I'm nervous too. But I'll make you a deal. I won't be nervous if you won't." she whispered back, an encouraging smile on her face.

"But momma, you're the best. You shouldn't be nervous. I won't be afraid anymore. Promise." he said, making a little 'x' over his heart.

"Okay then. Go have a good first day." James gave her a big hug before bravely walking into the classroom. He immediately saw Cooper, and ran over to play with him, quickly introducing himself to the unfamiliar kids around him. Aria watched how in a matter of seconds, James had already gotten over his fear.

She walked back to Ezra's car, a bit wistful. It felt that Jamie had been born only yesterday, and now he was going to his first day of school.

Shutting the passenger door, she turned to Ezra with tears brimming in her eyes. He understood immediately.

He softly kissed her temple while stroking her hair.

"I know. Please don't cry sweetheart. We still have our first day of school to get through."

Aria let out a shaky sigh and wiped her lash line. "Let's get going."

The pair arrived at school a half hour before classes started. Ezra headed off to his classroom while Aria went to grab something from the staff room. As she was heading out the door, she ran into Ella.

"Morning Aria." Ella said while trying to gather some papers she'd dropped. Aria knelt down to help.

"Morning Ella." Aria and her mother crouched there in an awkward silence, neither knowing exactly what to say. Finally after picking up all the dropped papers, Aria spoke up. "Thank you for being kind to Ezra on Friday. He told me you two were on good terms again after working together last year, but thank you for sticking up for him and I in front of dad. It meant a lot to both me and Ezra. "

Ella nodded curtly. "No problem honey." Ella breathed in a sharp breath. "Just letting you know, I'm not totally comfortable with the whole situation yet, but you're an adult who can make her own decisions, and I trust you." Aria gave her mother a small smile. "And don't tell your father this, but I'd rather the man be Ezra than someone else."

Aria leaned in and gave Ella a hug. "Thank you." As Aria started towards her classroom, Ella wished her good luck on her first day on the job. _What a way to start the morning._

Aria's nerves really kicked in as students started walking into the class. Shakily she wrote 'Ms. Montgomery' on the board and passed out the course outline.

As soon as all the students sat down, Aria snuck a look at Ezra's class next door. The door was open, and Ezra was introducing himself to the class, and cracked a joke getting a round of laughter from his students.

He casually looked over to Aria and gave her the same comforting smile James had given her that morning.

His confidence in her seemed to flick a switch. Her brain went into auto pilot; she could do this.

"Good morning class. I'm Ms. Montgomery, your new AP English teacher. I know that all of you would much rather be sleeping in right now, so we won't do anything too heavy today. Alright?" She got a murmur of approval from her students, which slightly boosted her confidence.

As the bell rang, signalling the end of first period, Aria spoke up over the clatter of students. "One quick thing; for homework, I want you to bring in a book that you enjoy. That's it. Have a good rest of your first day."

Aria sat at her desk, readying herself for her second period class that started in five minutes. _That actually wasn't too bad._ She thought to herself. The class seemed like a good group of kids. All they'd done that period was discuss different aspects of literature. Aria had chosen to start with that because she remembered hating it when teachers made her write notes on the first day; it always made her dislike the class right off the bat.

Aria was drawn out of her thoughts when there was a knock at her door. Standing there was a very amused looking Ezra.

"So I hear the new English teacher's really hot." He said, a boyish grin coming across his face.

"Oh really?" Aria played along, leaning herself against the desk.

Ezra nodded walking towards her.

"Mhm. I wonder if she's single."

Aria bit her lip, trying not to laugh. "

Too bad. I heard she's _really_ into her boyfriend. Rumor has it he's pretty cute too."

Ezra took another step closer so he was almost pressing up against her. "You know, I'm sure he won't mind..."

Aria leaned closer. "You're probably right."

At that moment the bell rang. A slightly disappointed look came across both of their faces. Ezra chuckled. "If I'm lucky maybe she'll go out to lunch with me." He said heading towards the door.

Aria smiled from ear to ear. She nearly lost it when Ezra bumped into a pair of eleventh grade girls trying to get into Aria's classroom.

They both turned bright red and nervously giggled. In the hallway between their rooms, Ezra turned to face Aria. She raised an eyebrow, and he just gave her a shrug, biting his lip. He turned once more and strode into his twelfth grade English class.

"Good morning everyone." Aria heard him shout, clearly familiar with the group of students. She heard a chorus of 'Morning Mr. Fitz!'; Aria took one last breath before turning her attentions to her own class, repeating her first period introductions.

About three quarters of the way though class during a discussion about literature, Aria's class seemed to be at an impasse. No one was willing to bring up another point. "You know, if we don't keep talking, I'm going to end up having to give you seat work."

When no one responded, Aria came up with an idea. "Okay, I'm going to give you until the end of the period to write something down about the following topic. I'll even do one too. Don't put your name on them, but hand it in at the end of the period. The topic is this."

Aria walked over to the board and picked up a piece of chalk, writing the topic.

"A character in a book that you can personally relate to."

Sitting down at her desk, Aria grabbed a piece of paper and a pen and began to write. Just as she'd written her first sentence, Aria noticed her phone light up from inside her purse that was tucked away under her desk. Making sure all her students were focusing on their work, Aria slyly grabbed her phone out of her purse.

**You're cute when you're concentrating. ;) - E**

She slowly looked out her classroom door to see Ezra looking at her. Silently she typed a response.

**Texting in class, are we Mr Fitz? -A**

It was only seconds later she saw a reply pop up in screen.

**I'm the teacher; I can do what I want. So do you think that the cute new English teacher will join me for lunch? ;) - E**

**I think she will. - A**

For the rest of the period, Ezra and Aria spent their time flirtatiously texting each other. Aria collected all the papers from her students as they left the class.

After grabbing her purse she set out towards Ezra's car. She saw him stifling a giggle in the driver's seat. Opening the door, she sat down then gave him an inquiring look.

"We're not very good at this." He stated simply, turning the keys in the ignition.

"At what?"

"Playing it cool. We keep getting distracted by each other; whether it's texting each other or stealing glances during class."

Aria smiled as she got an idea. Aria leaned over into the driver's seat and placed her lips next to Ezra's ear.

"If you have a problem with distraction, you should just close the door." She placed a hand on his right thigh, just to tease him more.

Aria noticed that his breath hitch slightly as they pulled up to a red light, Ezra had a devilish grin on his face. He turned to look Aria in the eyes.

"Maybe I like the view. Game on, sweetheart." They were so close that Aria could feel his breath on her face, she was sure she'd won this battle as Ezra leaned in. Instead of kissing her on the lips as she'd anticipated, he snaked around and pecked her on the cheek.

Furrowing her eyebrows in concentration, Aria was paying no attention to where Ezra was taking her. As soon as she hopped out of the car, she stood in a state of shock.

She was standing outside the bar that she and Ezra had met in. She felt his arm wrap around her waist.

"Aria, what's the date today?"

It took her a second to realize. "September 5th. Holy shit." she whispered. She internally berated herself for forgetting the day. It'd been seven years since her and Ezra had first met. Even though it wasn't technically their anniversary, it might as well have been.

Somehow she figured it counted.

Ezra took her inside the bar, where they ate lunch making casual small talk about their first two classes. The bar was empty except for the pair of them. With twenty minutes before they had to get back, Aria pushed her plate aside.

"I'll be right back." she got up and walked toward the washroom, pulling her phone out of her purse.

**Care to join me? - A**

No more than thirty seconds later, Ezra came sneaking through the door. With a quick flick of his wrist, he locked the door behind him.

He backed Aria up against the counter, kissing her neck. Aria grinned to herself knowing that because he'd won their little battle in the car, it was her turn to be victorious. She brought his face back up to meet hers. "The games still on, baby."

Aria tried not to lose as Ezra tried everything to entice her to kiss him. _We spend so much time with James or with other people around us that there's a lot of pent up... Energy when we're alone. _Aria noticed that Ezra's strength was waning as he pulled away from her neck, staring intently at her lips.

_Fuck, I want her._

"I give up." He whispered, leaning in hungrily for a real kiss. Aria was happy with the surrender, but now the real battle began. They each pressed against each other, trying to get as much contact as possible.

Ezra pulled him into her, feeling her body press against his own. The contact drove him crazy, and she could tell. It was more than obvious, the harder he ground into her.

Her nails raked his back underneath his shirt.

"Oops." She whispered.

They pulled apart for another half a second before crashing back together. Ezra trailed kissed down her neck, before sucking for a second on her collarbone.

"Watch it." She moaned.

Aria knew that logically they had to be careful. Her brain told her that she shouldn't be so risky; but at the moment she had no intention of listening to logic.

She grabbed the back of his head, tugging Ezra's hair gently, pulling his lips back up to hers again. Having them apart for seconds felt like a crime; one that she wasn't willing to commit.

Ten minutes later they walked out of the bathroom slightly flushed yet hand in hand and they paid the bartender on the way out. Driving back to Rosewood high was tense, and as Ezra pulled into the parking lot, Aria leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"One and one." She said, before leaving a stunned Ezra in silence.

Aria walked into to the school and headed towards Ella's classroom, as they both had no class this period. Clearly happy to see her daughter, Ella invited her inside.

"How're things going so far? Any trouble makers?"

Aria shook her head. "Actually both of my classes seem to be pretty good so far. I still have to see about fifth period, so fingers crossed there." Ella nodded, shuffling some papers around. "So is it okay if I take Jamie after school?" Aria turned to her mother, confused.

Seeing that Aria had no idea what she was talking about, Ella elaborated.

"Oh, I ran into Ezra at the beginning of third period in the parking lot. I offered to pick Jamie up from school since I know how most of the time you need to stay behind the first day. I have a dentist appointment at two so I'm leaving next period. It works out because I don't have a class then anyways. Didn't Ezra tell you?"

Aria tried not to blush remembering her lunch.

"No, the topic never came up, I guess. But that sounds great, thanks mom. I'll pick him up around three thirty, if that's okay with you?"

Ella agreed, and walked Aria out.

"I promised Ms. Mashner I'd help her deliver new textbooks this period, but I'll see you at three thirty, okay?"

Aria said her goodbyes and started back towards her own classroom. As she was about to turn in, she heard Ezra call her name. She walked into his classroom.

"Could you watch my class for a couple minutes while I go photocopy this?"A sheepish grin came across his face. Aria agreed, but in an attempt to get around each other they bumped full on into one another.

As they looked into each other eyes, it was like a spark crackled through the room.

The pair jumped apart mumbling their apologies before Ezra went on his way. Aria made her way to the front of the class, sitting on Ezra's desk.

Most of the students were situated without their work or talking amongst their friends, but Aria got questioning glances from four girls that slightly reminded her of Spencer, Emily, Hanna and herself.

Aria raised an eyebrow at them and they got back to their work, quietly muttering to each other. Looking around on Ezra's desk, Aria found what she was looking for. Grabbing a pen, she ripped a post-it note off the top of the stack, and quickly wrote down a note.

"_Ella said she'll take Jamie until 3:30, how about we crash at my place until then?"_

Aria carefully folded the note and placed in on Ezra's desk. Not thirty seconds later Ezra walked back into the room. Aria hopped down off his desk and went to leave the room, but found her way blocked.

"One and one?" Ezra mumbled so quietly no one but Aria could hear it. Her jaw dropped, leaving her mouth slightly agape. After a few seconds he stepped aside, letting a very shocked Aria push past him.

She scurried across the hall in a hurry, furrowing her brow. Hadn't they just discussed this? No distractions during school. Aria sighed to herself and heard her phone vibrate on the desk. Her head snapped across the hall where she saw Ezra staring at her.

She gave him a mischievous look before opening the bottom drawer in her desk and dropping her phone into it, allowing him to see what had just happened. Then she got up and very slowly pushed the door close. _No distractions._

For the rest of her free period, Aria took her time and started reading through the small assignment she'd given to her second period class. Many of the paragraphs were basic and had clearly been rushed through with no thought put into them what so ever. However, there were a handful that actually surprised Aria, making her curious as to who the authors were.

She didn't press on the subject for too long; being a writer herself, she knew there were certain things that you want to keep private.

Before she knew it, Aria's fifth period class had come and go with a bit of a rough start; the class had eventually calmed down and had been active in their discussions providing good insight on the topics at hand. Without realizing it, Aria had made her way out to the parking lot and had gone into auto pilot and was heading towards Ezra's car.

She got in saying nothing, just crossing her arms and pouting.

"What's wrong?" Ezra asked, trying to stop himself from chuckling.

Aria turned to him and smacked him on the arm.

"What happened to no distractions? You can't say things like that in class in front of your students. I feel like I'm in high school again. Your students totally know what's going on as well; when we bumped into each other there might as well have been fireworks going off in the room!" Aria let out a frustrated sigh, pushing her hair out of her eyes. "We're awful at this."

Ezra did nothing but stare at the road ahead of him, smirking silently. Aria looked at him for a response, but he just shook his head.

When they got to Aria's around three o clock, the pair didn't say a word to one another. It wasn't until Aria found herself staring right into Ezra's eyes in her front hall that they said anything.

"I never agreed to not having any distractions, you know. I said I had no problems with distractions." He said, grinning.

In that second Aria could swear that she felt all her barriers melt away. Every thought, every feeling, every worry; gone. Instead of coming up with a witty remark as she'd planned, she leaned in and kissed him.

"It's. Not. Fair." Aria muttered in between kisses, while she pulled him to the couch by his tie. She pushed him down on the couch before he could ask what she meant. Aria drew her focus to the buttons on his dress shirt when Ezra finally spoke up.

"I win."

Aria shut him up with a kiss. "Not the time." She continued attempting to undo his buttons, but got stuck at the third from the bottom. Laughing at her, Ezra undid it himself.

"Having some trouble?" He said with a sarcastic smile.

Aria rolled her eyes and began trailing kisses up his neck.

"No talking. I'm still mad at you." She whispered in his ear. Ezra kindly obliged, and twenty minutes later Aria was straddling a very shirtless Ezra.

"I should get you angry more often." He joked.

They played out the scene from the bar again; this time, less clothing involved. Neither of them complained until Aria jolted upright, mid kiss.

Frantically, she reached over, checking the time on her iPhone. 3:38. "Shit, we're late to pick up our son." She frantically threw Ezra his shirt, which had been casually tossed away while ago. She slipped her own shirt over her head, quickly fixed her hair and grabbed her car keys. Ezra managed to button his own shirt up as he and Aria ran out the door.

Around quarter to four Aria and Ezra pulled up to her parents house, and went to knock on the door. When Byron opened the door, Aria gave him an apologetic smile.

"Sorry we're late dad, we totally lost track of time." Byron glanced at Ezra and gave him a quick nod, but his expression went from neutral to looking as though he was going to punch a wall in less than a second.

"You skipped a button, Ezra." Byron said calmly, pointing to Ezra's shirt. Both of Aria and Ezra's faces turned bright red. _Busted._ In a hurry, Ezra fixed his shirt. Byron inhaled deeply before continuing. "If you two are going to be late, I'd prefer it not be while you're fu-"His venomous tone was cut off at the sound of Jamie galloping down the stairs. "You know what I mean." He spat out.

"Bye Grandpa! I'll see you soon, okay?" James said, giving Byron a huge embrace.

"Of course Jamie. Keep an eye on your mom for me, will you?" He said, glaring at Ezra while he did so.

In his innocence, James just nodded before running to his mom. Relieved for a change in subject, Aria picked James up and balanced him on her hip.

"Thank you for watching him Byron." She said as the small family walked away.

"How was your first day little man?" She asked excitedly.

For nearly the entire car ride home and even when they got inside James went on about his first day of school. He loved his teacher, as well as he'd made new friends with two boys named Evan and Matt. James went on about how Evan and Matt liked cars just as much as he and Cooper did, so they were best friends now, but "not as best friends as me and Cooper". After telling his mom and dad about every little detail of his first day, he pulled out his backpack when they sat down in the kitchen.

"And we even did finger painting, so I made this!" James unfolded a paper that had been neatly tucked away in his bag. On the inner side of the paper was a painting of Aria and Ezra holding hands with James standing in the middle of them.

Beneath were the words 'My Family', written by his teacher.

"What d'you think?" James asked, clearly proud of his work.

Aria smiled. "I think it's amazing. We even have the perfect spot on the fridge for it. How does that sound Jamie?" James had a huge grin plastered on his face, and helped put the magnets on while Aria and Ezra held up the picture on the refrigerator.

James then went upstairs to play with his cars, leaving Aria and Ezra sitting alone on the couch. Both of which were still thinking about the encounter with Byron.

"I can't believe I messed up my shirt." Ezra sighed, rubbing his face in distress. Aria just curled up to his side.

"I can't believe my parents think we're sleeping together after what, a week and a half? Not even." Aria mumbled into Ezra's side.

Ezra chuckled.

"I'd have no problems with that, you know." He whispered teasingly, leaning his head on hers.

He brought his head up off hers a couple moments later, and tilted her chin to make her look into his eyes.

"In all seriousness, I know that day will probably come again but not until we're both ready, okay? I don't want to lose what we have, and that means more to me than anything." Ezra sighed, stroking her hair gently. "I love you too much to lose you again." The words flowed smoothly out of his mouth; they were intentional, each one packed with meaning.

His statement caused Aria to falter. "I..." Before she could finish Ezra stopped her with a look.

"Don't say it if you don't mean it. I'm fine if you don't, but all that I ask is that you don't lie about things. Sound good?"

Aria smiled and pecked him on the cheek. "No lies. Promise."

Aria and Ezra sat on the couch enjoying each other's company for a while longer, until Ezra realized things had been relatively quiet upstairs. He and Aria crept up stairs, and peered into James' room, to find him asleep on the floor with a piece of paper face down and crayons surrounding him.

Ezra went over and gently picked James up, placing him on his bed, while Aria went over and grabbed the paper. On it was three stick figures, with the labels 'Mom, Dad, Me and Rex.'

"Look." Aria whispered, showing the picture to Ezra. "He wants a dog." Aria said, amused. He'd never mentioned wanting a dog before.

"Put it back where you found it, and we'll pretend like we've never seen it. Maybe we'll have a new member of the family soon that won't give Ella and Byron a heart attack." He said, towing Aria out of their sons' room, shutting the door behind them.

"I'd always wished for a dog when I was little. We'll think about it." She said, placing a kiss on Ezra's lips as they walked downstairs.


	13. Chapter 13

The first week of school had come and gone just as quickly as the first day had arrived. Throughout the first few days, a patterned settled into Aria and Ezra's lives. In the morning Ezra would drive Aria and James to their respective schools, and each lunch he and aria would eat together. After school the trio would head to Aria's, where they'd spend family time together. Ezra found that he was spending nearly as much time at Aria's house as he was his own apartment.

Aria shoved a mouthful of salad in her mouth.

"Your turn." She mumbled, grinning. If they didn't go out for lunch, the pair ate in one of their classrooms, asking each other questions to pass the time.

Ezra had paused for a second, trying to think of a question. His thoughts roamed the possibilities; many of the more common questions had to do with Aria, himself, either of their pasts, James, or random things that had a tendency to pass through their minds. _James._

"How did you choose James' name?" He asked, perplexed. He seemed to remember hearing about the subject before, but he couldn't remember the exact details.

Aria snapped the lid back on her plastic salad container, reaching over and setting back on Ezra's desk.

"James William Fitz. William was after William Shakespeare." She nervously bit her lip. "Literature played a huge role in our relationship, and after I… left you, I thought that something of that significance shouldn't have been lost because of my cowardice." Aria paused and reached across the high school desks they were sitting at and took Ezra's hands in her own. For some reason they ate in the students desks, neither were quite sure why, but it seemed to be the instinctive thing to do.

"James because I remember one afternoon in the summer we were jokingly talking about what it would be like if we ever had kids, and I remember you and I both agreeing on James, after my grandpa." Aria took a deep breath before continuing; only focusing on their hands, refusing to look Ezra in the eyes. "And lastly Fitz, because I thought I'd taken his father out of his physical life for good; I thought that he should at least have something from his dad. I guess it sounds contradictory, me knowingly making the decision to leave, but I guess part of me selfishly wanted to feel like I still had some part of you with me throughout the whole ordeal."

Ezra sat in silence, taking it all in. Most of the time their questions had been lighthearted, but he could tell that this one struck a nerve with his girlfriend. He reached over and brushed some hair off of Aria's face.

"It wasn't selfish." He whispered. "Anyways, I like it." A small smile tugged at his lips in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Aria looked up and couldn't help but smile herself. She found it amazing that Ezra could do that to her; just take the weight off her shoulders and make her feel that nothing was wrong. It was comforting to her that she could tell Ezra all of this and he'd understand.

Ezra let out an internal sigh, happy that he'd brought Aria's mind off of things.

"Your turn."

Aria took no time to think about a question; she needed to ask him anyways. "This definitely counts as a question; could you watch Jamie tonight? Hanna and Spencer are kidnapping me for a girl's night."

"Yeah sure, I don't think I had anything on tab for tonight."

Aria gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "Thank you." She said while fumbling with her phone as she pulled it out of her purse.

**3 Missed Alerts**

Ezra watched in fascination as Aria's expressions changed while reading the texts. "What's wrong?"

Aria shook her head before locking her phone and sliding back in her bag. "Nothing major, Hanna's freaking out over some huge fight with Caleb. They've been arguing with each other a lot, lately."

"And they don't fight normally?"

Aria looked out the classroom windows to see streaks of sunlight peeking in. "Never. Well, next to never. There's the occasional spat but nothing this major."

Ezra just nodded and sat there in silence, but the topic of Hanna and Caleb prompted another question to pop in his head.

"Who are James' godparents?" he asked. Ezra had noticed that Hanna and his son had a special bond, so he'd assumed she was his godmother; but who was his godfather?

"Well Hanna is his godmother; and he doesn't have a godfather. I never really thought about it; I guess I felt like that was your choice."

Ezra sighed, there were so many little holes in his sons' life. He wasn't angry about the little things that Aria had left for him. Instead it made him curious.

He ran his hand through his hair, not worried if it messed his hair up; it never seemed to stay flat anyways.

"Were you ever planning on telling me about James? I mean, if I hadn't run into him in the grocery store, we would be in a very different position right now."

Aria nervously started fidgeting with her purse. It was a good question, had she even intended to tell Ezra about their son?

_Of course I did._

She hesitated before starting.

"I think I did. No matter what I told myself, I think deep down my intentions were to come back to find you. I'd gone through a lot during those years apart, and I think I grew up enough that I realized you had a right to be in your son's life. But I was scared. I needed that motivation to actually tell you; I just got pushed out of the nest that Saturday, and it turned out pretty well."

For a second Ezra hesitated, trying to find the words that escaped him. "And if you hadn't got the courage?"

Aria wore a wistful smile and reached across the desk, pushing Ezra's hair out of his face, and let her hand linger on his cheek.

"I'm sure fate would've intervened eventually. Besides, people who are meant to be together always find their way back to one another."

Aria and Ezra nearly jumped out of their skin when the bell went. Getting up, they both had huge grins on their face. As she was leaving the room, she felt Ezra tug gently on her arm, spinning her around.

He had a boyish expression on his face. "So you think we're meant to be?"

"Well by the looks of it I'm stuck with you." Aria stepped away slowly, until she was just holding Ezra's hand. "Have a good class Mr Fitz."

As he watched Aria leave the class, Students started arriving in the class.

"Hey Mr Fitz, are you with Ms Montgomery?" A kid yelled across the class. He took his hat off his head, pushing his fingers through his hair.

Ezra was speechless. "Uh-" 

"I mean, you two are always together at lunch, and both you drive to school and stuff."

This seemed to command the attention of the whole class. _Wow, if only they'd pay this much attention during lessons._ Smoothly, Ezra skipped over the subject.

"Nobody's with anybody, Mr. Taylor. Now as much as you're trying to stall it, everyone does have to hand in their sample paragraph today. I'm going to take a wild guess and say you don't have yours finished. Am I correct?"

The kid shuffled with his bag for a second before coming up with a retort. "You see sir, Aiden's dog ate it. Can't hand it in."

Ezra let out an amused chuckle. "You have until 7 pm tonight to email it to me, Mr. Taylor."

"Alright sir. Thanks."

Besides the minor interruption at the beginning of class, the rest of the lesson went well, and fifth period passed quickly as well. The next thing he knew, Ezra was standing inside Aria's empty classroom, waiting for her to pack up her things.

"I'm so not looking forward to all the marking I have to do this weekend." Aria sighed. "I have twenty four rough copy essays to grade."

"Ouch, essays during the first week of school, Ms. Montgomery?" He said while striding across the room and sitting down in the chair behind her desk.

"Yeah, well it's either now on an easier topic or later on one of the in class novels we have to cover this semester. I figured students would like this better." Aria turned around and raised an eyebrow. "You're in my chair." She said mockingly.

"You know, we could always share." He said, inviting her to come and sit with him.

"I would, but we have to go pick up our son from school." As she said this, Aria walked closer to the desk and went to grab her keys off the surface of the desk. While her back was turned, Ezra grabbed her waist and pulled her into his lap. "We could always be five minutes late." He whispered into her ear. As he pulled away he wore a mischievous grin on his face.

Aria rolled her eyes, but placed a chaste kiss on his lips.

"Come on."

Aria and Ezra made their way out to the parking lot together, amazed they had made it out so early. Normally it took them at least twenty minutes to get their things together and make sure everything was prepared for the next day. Being a gentleman, Ezra opened the passenger door for Aria to climb into, but as he held the door open for her, he temporarily blocked Aria's path, a crooked grin on his face.

He leaned into kiss her, but was interrupted by whistles and cheers from a group of boys standing outside the door of the school.

"Way to go Mr Fitz!" one of them shouted.

"Hey Mitch, told you. Hand over ten bucks." Ezra heard him say.

He turned to Aria, looking bashful. "Some of my students who asked me if I was with you earlier today. Guess they're betting on us too." Aria turned beet red before pushing through Ezra and situating herself in the front seat.

When he got in the car he turned to Aria who was still immensely embarrassed by what had just gone down in the parking lot.

"I almost forgot to tell you something." He said while sticking the keys in the admission and putting the car into drive.

Aria turned to him, curious.

"You're beautiful."

Aria bit her lip and felt her cheeks go even redder, if that was possible. Butterflies fluttered in her stomach, flipping nervously. It was funny how just the simplest comment from Ezra made her feel this way; but it was refreshing. For the first time in a long time, she felt loved.

Not by her son, or by her friends; that type of love was something that never changed or left her. This was different, this was the ability to brighten her day with a look, make her insides churn with a compliment, or simply spend an entire lunch hour doing nothing but talking.

In that moment, she knew that she'd fallen in love with Ezra all over again.


	14. Chapter 14

**Just letting you guys know, Aria and Ezra's stories are going on at the same time, I just split them up so it would make sense.**

"You know, I don't even understand why he's being so stubborn about this; I mean it's not even a big deal." Hanna grumbled as she shoved a spoon of chocolate ice cream into her bowl.

Aria and Spencer shared a look. Hanna had been going on about her and Caleb's meltdown for over half an hour, alternating from being angry, to crying, to eating ice cream like there was no tomorrow. It would only be a couple spoonfuls before Hanna would go back to looking as though she was going to go rampaging through Rosewood.

"Honestly Hanna, you've been crying to us about this fight, but what was the actual problem?" Spencer asked.

Hanna just rolled her eyes and brushed off her best friend's question.

Aria and Spencer shot each other a quick look before both glaring at Hanna.

Hanna dropped her spoon and sighed in defeat.

"Well, a couple of days ago I ran into Caleb at the mall. I was supposed to be at a pilates class, but traffic was awful so I didn't go. I spent a while just popping in and out of stores, but then I decided to go into Tiffany, and I saw Caleb there; and he was buying a ring." Hanna shoveled a large spoon of ice cream in her mouth, and then continued. "Caleb turned around and saw me, and we both flipped out inside. Neither of us said anything, but on his way out we ended up brushing shoulders."

Aria and Spencer just looked at each other, completely bewildered. Clearly if Caleb was going to propose, that was a good thing. "I'm not seeing the problem here." Aria said, shaking her head in confusion.

Hanna pushed the bowl of ice cream away from here, and let out a tiny sob.

"Well, I got home and saw him waiting here with the ring box open on the island. You guys know me; I don't always think things through before I say them... And that just made things worse. He told me that he knew I'd seen him buy the ring, and the surprise was ruined, and that he was really angry about it and stuff... I told him I wasn't ready to get married right now, and I don't know why I said it, but I was just freaked out at the fact that the ring was staring me in the face. We've been at each other's throats since then."

By the end of her story, Hanna had tears streaming down her face; Aria and Spencer were at her sides, arms wrapped around her.

"I don't understand, why you don't just tell him you messed up?" Spencer asked.

Hanna inhaled a shaky breath. "I don't know. I'm afraid that he thinks I don't want to be with him, because I said no. I really fucked up."

Aria got up, put the lid on the ice cream container and then stashed it back in the freezer. "Han, I'm sure if you tell him the truth, he'll understand." She said softly.

Hanna let out a sarcastic snort. "Easy for you to say."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"What I mean is that Ezra is the king of forgiveness. You spring the fact that you have a kid, and he doesn't freak out. Not only that, but you purposely didn't tell him. It's not like you didn't know if James was his. But yet again, he's fine with it. He always fights for you." Hanna spat.

Aria's mouth hung open, speechless. Spencer opened her mouth to interrupt, but Aria held up a hand, silencing her.

"What the hell is your problem? Since when can you judge anything about my families' problems? We've talked about this before, and Ezra and I have agreed that what's in the past is in the past; there's no use dwelling on what we can't change.

Both girls got to their feet on opposite sides of the kitchen island.

"Oh, so 'what's in the past is in the past?' Well Ar, the past hurts, believe it or not. Just because Ezra doesn't say anything, doesn't mean it doesn't bother him! Speaking of the past, I'll bet you my entire collection of heels you haven't told him about The Jason Thing." She said, narrowing her eyes in malice.

Aria paused for a second, unsure what to say. She was at a loss for words; instead of going on attack again, she got defensive. "Why are you jumping down my throat about this?"

"You're avoiding my question."

Aria looked at Spencer in desperation, silently pleading for her to say something. Instead Spencer sat quietly, she thought the less she was involved with this, the better. If she didn't take sides, things would be easier to clean up later.

"So maybe I haven't. I've told him everything else though; we talked about what we've been up to while we were apart, dating and otherwise, Han. We promised to be honest with each other, but we're entitled to our secrets, right? I'm not lying, I'm just not entirely telling the truth. Leave it alone."

Aria screamed. The girls had talked about this before; they'd all agreed not to bring up The Jason Thing as a courtesy to Aria. Why Hanna had decided to bring this up now, of all times left Aria and Spencer both baffled.

"Yeah, well be careful Aria, secrets tend to tear people apart." Hanna said icily, but as soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately regretted it. Her accusation was similar to those which the girls used to get from A in high school, and the subject was still a bit touchy.

Aria's mouth was hanging open. Words seemed to get caught in her throat. The tone was all too familiar, one that really hit home.

"Is that a threat, Hanna?"

Hanna slammed her hand down on the table, closed her eyes and leaned her head back.

"No, of course not. All I'm saying is that maybe your relationship isn't as solid as it seems. Fuck I'm so sorry I even opened my mouth."

"Solid? You think Ezra and my relationship is _solid_? Hanna, I just told him he has a kid, we hadn't seen each other in five years, and we've barely been dating for two weeks! We're anything but solid; we have a shit load to work on, and we're still getting to know each other again." Aria was so angry she felt her eyes beginning to brim with tears. "He has enough to deal with, and _that's_ why I'm not telling about The Jason Thing, okay?"

Hanna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, that's why... Or is it more of the fact that you're afraid he'll leave again?" She dropped her voice to a malicious whisper.

Spencer stood up to join her two friends.

"Enough." She screamed. "Hanna, you're going after Aria for no reason, you both need to stop. Hanna, stay here and have a drink and calm down, okay? Aria come with me."

When both refused to move from a position where they were standing across from each other glaring, Spencer took things into her own hands and physically dragged Aria into the next room.

Aria looked over her shoulder at Hanna. "He didn't leave me. I left him, and that's a mistake I'll never make again."

Ezra Fitz slid a bowl of mac and cheese to his son across the table, much to the little boy's delight. "Sorry Jamie, I'm pretty low on food, I've got to go shopping soon." Ezra said as he scooped some pasta into his own bowl.

"S'okay daddy. I love mac and cheese." James stated simply, and began to dig in. Ezra watched his son in awe while eating his own dinner. It was remarkable how he could pick out the qualities that James had inherited from him and Aria.

While James was the spitting image of Ezra, a lot of his personality had been from Aria; his perseverance, his curiosity, and his strength all stemmed from his mother. He'd gotten a passion for literature from both of his parents.

Ezra smiled as he recalled what had happened earlier that evening when Aria had dropped James off. The moment he'd gotten in the apartment and looked around, James immediately drifted towards Ezra's bookshelf. After they'd bid Aria goodbye, James pulled some of the books that grabbed his attention off the shelf and asked Ezra what each of them were about.

He had patiently sat there while Ezra explained each of the books he'd picked out, and once he was satisfied with what Ezra had told him, he slid the book back into its place. Ezra tried not to treat him like a little kid. It was strange, generally with young children he favoured them, made things easier to understand, glossed over things to make life simpler.

With James it was different. He wanted to know exactly what things meant and why they happened, no short cuts.

After dinner, James unpacked his backpack, which he'd stuffed to the top with cars, paper and crayons as well as an assortment of other toys to play with. In an attempt to grab a car that he thought resided at the bottom of his bag, James put the stack of papers he'd packed on the couch cushion beside Ezra. On top was a picture of James and a dog that he'd drawn.

"Hey buddy, what's this?"

James looked up at his dad, who was holding the picture for him to see. "That's me and a doggy, daddy. Dogs are so cool dad! Matt has one and his momma brought her to school one morning! Her name's Daisy."

Ezra nodded. "So is this you and Daisy?" He asked, playing along. He and Aria had talked about getting James a dog, possibly for Christmas that year.

"Nope. That's me and my doggy. If I ever get one." James sighed and went and sat next to his dad. "I love you and momma, but playing alone gets boring. I just want someone to play with when I'm at home."

Ezra ruffled his son's hair. "Well buddy, I'll see what I can do. I'll talk to your mom about it, but I make no promises."

Just at the thought of possibly getting a dog, James' bright blue eyes widened.

"Okay daddy!" He said happily, giving Ezra a huge hug.

They were interrupted by a knock at the door. Ezra looked across the room at the clock; it was only seven thirty, Aria had said she'd probably pick James up at nine. James hopped off the couch and went back to trying to find the car he was missing.

Ezra got up and walked to the door, curious as to whom it might be. When he opened the door, he came face to face with Hardy, who was carrying a six pack of beer in his right hand.

"Where the hell have you been man? I thought you might've died or something... You dropped off the face of the Earth for a couple weeks!" He said, walking into Ezra's apartment and setting the beer on the table before stopping and pointing at James, confused. "What's with the kid? You babysitting or something?"

Before Ezra could explain, James got up and extended his tiny hand up at Hardy. "Hi. I'm James William Fitz."

After finally getting Aria and Hanna away from each other, Spencer had them sit in different rooms to calm down. Just moments earlier Spencer had left Aria in the living room so she could go talk with Hanna. There was no way that they were going to have a civil conversation with Aria and Hanna in the same room.

Aria just sat there, playing with one of the pillows, thinking to herself.

_How dare she bring up The Jason Thing, I mean really, how could she? And to say all of that about Ezra was absolutely horrible. _

No matter how much she tried, the little voice in the back of her head kept annoying her with whispers of doubt. She'd just come to the conclusion earlier in the day that she had fallen back in love with Ezra... Who was Hanna to make her feel that what she was feeling was wrong?

Aria bit her lip; just because Ezra had forgiven her easily didn't make it a bad thing. Right? A war began in Aria's head, fighting each possibility. Slowly but surely, Hanna's words cut through every defence. It didn't help that Aria was already been worried.

Even after Ezra's reassurance, the doubt was still seeded in the back of her mind. Hanna's accusations had just allowed this seed to grow.

Shakily, Aria got up and stormed into the kitchen, grabbing her keys. Giving Hanna a death glare and Spencer a small wave, she quickly strode out of Hanna's house, only to discover it had started to pour rain. _Perfect._

Slamming her car doors, Aria started to make her way to Ezra's.

Hardy's eyes widened at the little boy's last name. "Fitz?" He said, while shaking James' hand, but staring at Ezra. Ezra just shrugged. Hardy bent down so he was at James' level. "Nice to meet you, James. How old are you?"

James held up four fingers.

"Are you daddy's friend?" James asked innocently.

"Yep. I haven't seen your dad in a while, but now I guess I know why. I thought I'd pop by, but I guess he's busy."

Ezra let out a small sigh. Hardy was going to demand a lengthy explanation. Before Hardy could say anything to Ezra, James walked up to him and tugged on the side of Hardy's black t-shirt.

"Do you wanna play cars with me and daddy? I have lots."

Kindly, Hardy obliged, and the three played cars and Transformers for nearly an hour before James began drifting off to sleep on the couch. When Hardy was one hundred percent sure that James was asleep, he and Ezra sat down at the kitchen table.

"Holy shit." Hardy said quietly, chuckling under his breath. Ezra shot him an exasperated glare.

"What? Dude, you're a father, what else can I say to that?" Hardy took a sip of his beer.

Ezra quietly opened a cabinet and grabbed a glass, filling it with water. "How about congratulations?"

"Lemme guess. His mother is the girl who was your student?"

Ezra stopped raising his glass midway to his mouth. "How do you figure that?" He asked, a bit freaked out that Hardy had got it on the first try.

Pushing his chair back, hardy kicked his feet up in the table. "First off, for being four years old, he's a tad small. They have the same hair colour, and judging by the time you guys 'broke up', he fits. Am I right, or am I right?"

Ezra ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, you're right."

"So, she left five years ago with the kid, and then showed up two weeks ago and just told you about him?" Hardy guessed, taking another long draught from his beer.

"Not exactly." For another ten minutes Ezra proceeded to tell Hardy everything that had went down in the past two weeks. When he finished, Ezra felt like he could go for a beer himself.

"That's absolutely crazy, dude. It sounds like the kind of stuff that only happens on TV."

Ezra laughed. "I know, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Having Aria back is even better than I had hoped, and James is just... amazing. I just wish she would've told me. I would've given up everything to be a part of his life sooner."

Hardy turned his head and looked at the little boy sleeping on the couch, clutching a stuffed animal he had brought with him.

"I can completely understand that Ezra, but I can understand where Aria was coming from as well." Taking off his feet off the table, Hardy turned to Ezra with a wicked grin on his face. "Too bad he looks like you. Just kidding, he's an adorable kid. Well behaved too. You're lucky, man."

Ezra nodded, but inside he felt bursting with pride. Both men were surprise to hear a knock at the door, and the loud banging noise made James stir in his sleep.

When he opened the door, Ezra was surprised to find a soaking wet Aria with tears in her eyes. "Is James asleep?" She muttered so quietly Ezra almost didn't catch it.

"Yes." Ezra said warily. He looked over to Hardy who just gave him a nod, and then stepped out into the hallway and shut the door behind him. "What's wrong, Aria?"

She shook her head, and tried to step around Ezra to get into the apartment. "Nothing." With her being so small, Ezra easily blocked her way.

"Tell me."

"Nothing, Hanna's just being a brat. I'm fine." Ezra still blocked her way, not budging an inch. Tired of looking at her feet Aria looked up at Ezra.

"Look me in the eyes and tell me you're fine." Aria opened her mouth to try and lie her way through, but found that she couldn't do it. Instead she just sunk down on the wall beside Ezra's door.

"If you want, I can take James for the night. You can crash here as well." Ezra knew that he wasn't going to get anything out of her until she was ready to tell him, so he figured the longer he spent time with her, the more likely she was going to spill.

Aria nodded and got up, following Ezra into the apartment. What was she supposed to say, there was no way she was going to bring up The Jason Thing with him right now, and she wasn't sure what was bothering her more, the fact that Hanna had accused her of lying to Ezra, or the mess of emotion that was going through her mind.

Sitting down at the kitchen table, Aria snapped back into reality and noticed Hardy sitting across for her.

"Hello Hardy." She mumbled.

"Hey Aria, long time no see. You're not looking to good." He said, finishing off the last of his beer. She looked up at him, and gave him a disapproving glare. This was so not the time. Ezra had excused himself in order to go grab Aria a towel from the bathroom to dry herself off with.

"Tell Ezra I'll come pick up James tomorrow, okay?" She mumbled as she quickly exited the apartment.

Hardy just nodded and watched the door slowly close behind her and not quite closing all the way before getting up and walking over to Ezra. Leaning on the door frame, Hardy watched Ezra get up, his hands clutching a pale blue towel.

"Your girl just took off. Don't let her leave this time, okay? I'll watch James."

Confused, Ezra walked out and saw the door slightly ajar. He quickly grabbed an old Hollis sweater off his bed and sauntered out of the apartment.

Taking the stairs two at a time, Ezra jogged to the front door before stopping for a moment and looking out the windows. It was raining, and not only raining, but pouring. Step out for a second and get soaked to the bone pouring. Taking a small breath, he pushed through the front door, to see Aria half way across the parking lot, practically running to her car.

"Aria!" Ezra called out, desperate to get her attention. There was no explanation for why she was so upset, and now wasn't the time to give her space. Sprinting to close the distance between them before Aria could get to her car, Ezra shook his head, trying to get the droplets of water out of his eyes for a second.

Aria went rigid as she felt Ezra grab her arm. "Let me go Ezra." She said, her voice cracking at the end.

Ezra shook his head. "Not until what's going on, Aria. You can't just shut down every time there's something wrong. You can tell me." Aria looked down, refusing to meet his eyes. "Please." He begged.

Aria just shook her head, biting her lip. "How can you do this Ezra? You follow me into the rain, you put up with everything I've told you, and some how you manage to keep your cool through it all." She cried, and reached out and pushed him away. "Just yell at me for once; I deserve it."

Ezra stood there, stunned. "You want me to yell? Fine. We're going to stand out here and get hypothermia until you tell me what's going on, Aria. Why can't you fully open up to me?" Ezra screamed. Calming himself down, he ran his fingers through his sopping wet hair. "I don't know what else to tell you, Aria."

Even through the rain, you could still see the tears streaming down Aria's face. "You know why Ezra? It's because last time this happened, I got hurt badly. They made the same promises, and then things ended badly. And what scares me the most is that I never fell for them as fast as I've fallen for you again Ezra; I don't want to get hurt again, and I don't want to lose you again."

After she'd said it, Aria could feel as if a small weight had been taken off her shoulders. Still heavy, but not as much as before.

They stood there in dead silence, with only the sound of the rain drumming on the ground and splashing off the cars. For a split second, Aria turned towards her car, about to leave Ezra standing in the rain, but something Hanna had said earlier that evening rang in her head.

_He always fights for you. _Hanna was right, and maybe it was her turn to fight for him. Instead, she turned and ran to Ezra, wrapping her arms around his neck, trying to pull him as close to her as possible.

She forcefully pushed her lips on his, and within seconds she could feel his tongue running along her bottom lip. She moved her hands off his neck, entangling them in his brown curls. Again she felt the calm rush over her; all her worries were forgotten, and the only thing that mattered was the moment she was in, with just her and Ezra.

When she pulled away, she still had tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm a complete mess."

Ezra let a tiny smile come across his face.

"How about next time instead of being a complete mess outside in the pouring rain, we can do this inside?"

Aria nodded and pressed her head into Ezra's chest, enjoying the warmth he gave her. She felt his lips place a kiss on her forehead. She looked up at Ezra, who was chuckling softly to himself. "Can we go inside now? I'm absolutely soaked."

Aria laughed, and the pair ran hand in hand back to the apartment complex. When they finally got inside, Aria burst out laughing.

"Well that was completely ridiculous." Ezra wrapped his arms around her small frame. "I kind of enjoyed the kissing part, though. Not going to lie."

Ezra pushed open the door to the stairwell, and held it open as Aria passed through.

"Only kind of?" She asked mockingly. Grabbing her waist, Ezra pulled Aria close to him and looked around the stairway, making sure no one was there.

"Really liked that part." He bent down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. "Aria, you know you have nothing to worry about; I'm not going back on anything I've said. Any guy who goes back on his promises with a girl is an asshole. You deserve so much better than that. Promise me next time there's something bothering you, you'll come and talk to me first?"

Aria faltered for a second. For a brief moment, she considered telling Ezra about The Jason Thing, but staring into his piercing blue eyes, she knew she couldn't do it.

"Promise." She whispered, leaning her forehead against his. They walked up the first two flights of stairs in silence, but Aria stopped as they got to the third flight.

She leaned over and kissed Ezra, making him stop as well.

"I liked the kissing part too." She muttered, a mischievous smile on her face. Ezra raised an eyebrow but caught on immediately. He backed her up against the wall, smirking.

One second they were standing apart, staring into each other's eyes, and the next she had him backed against a wall, her lips on his. They were interrupted several minutes later by the sound of the door leading to the third floor creak open.

"Wow, okay my bad." Yelled down an embarrassed Hardy, who was holding the door open with his toe. "You guys were gone for a while; I thought you'd been washed away or something. Clearly not. Never mind."

Aria and Ezra slightly untangled themselves from one another, and Aria giggled when she saw Ezra's expression, who was clearly pleased with how uncomfortable he'd made his friend. Normally it was the other way around.

Aria and Ezra shared a chaste kiss before following Hardy back to 3B. When they got in the door, Hardy was slipping his jacket on.

"I'm going to go, clearly you two need some alone time. Ezra, text me some time and we'll go and grab drinks. Aria, you've got yourself a cute kid. Hopefully I'll see you soon."

Aria gave a small wave before walking over to the couch where her son was peacefully sleeping. "Looks like he had a good time." She said quietly to Ezra.

Ezra nodded and tossed her a grey t-shirt and pyjama bottoms. "He tired himself out after about an hour. Guess he had a busy day at school."

The pair got changed out of their wet clothes and huge them into the bathroom to dry before crawling into bed. "It's early." Aria remarked, looking at the clock on the bedside table. _8:45_

"I planned on reading for a little while, but first can I ask you a question?" Ezra asked, grabbing a paperback book off his nightstand.

"Sure."

"Why haven't you told me about this guy before, Aria?"

Aria let out a shallow breath, readying the words in her mind before saying them. "I didn't tell you because it's not something I'm proud of. I got hurt, and did some things I'm not completely sure why I did them. I don't want to look back on the mistakes I made. I want to be here, with you and our son."

Ezra didn't say anything; instead he just pulled Aria close and stroked her hair, soothing her while reading the first couple pages of his new book. They were both shocked to see a very sleepy Jamie walk over and climb to sleep beside Aria. No words were said as he sleepily clambered over both his parents, but Aria and Ezra smile with silent satisfaction.

Aria was right. This was where she wanted to be; with her family.


	15. Chapter 15

Aria woke up to a crash coming from the kitchen. She snapped up, and turned to see Jamie picking up a whisk off the ground, a sheepish look on his face.

"Oops." He mouthed. Aria got up and stretched before jumping out of bed.

"Morning Momma!" James said while giving her a huge hug. "Daddy and I are making pancakes for breakfast!" James held the whisk up, looking very proud of himself. "I got the syrup and butter and whip cream out! And daddy said he'll make me _chocolate chip_ pancakes!"

Aria giggled and looked to Ezra. "And just how much sugar have you let him have this morning? He's going to be bouncing off walls sooner or later."

Ezra chuckled under his breath and leaned in to give Aria a chaste kiss.

"He's just excited. I promised him that today we'd go on a family picnic today. How does that sound?" He asked while pulling out a carton of milk and setting the whipped cream on the table.

"Sounds perfect." Aria pulled the small black elastic off her wrist and put her hair up in a messy ponytail, leaving a couple of strands out to frame her face. "Anything I can help with?" She said, scanning the kitchen for something that she could do.

Ezra shook his head as he poured some milk into the pancake mixture. "Not that I can think of."

Aria skipped across the kitchen and grabbed the can of whipped cream that was sitting on the kitchen table. Ezra opened his mouth and Aria sprayed some in his mouth. With a little left over on his lips, Aria placed a sweet kiss to get the remaining cream off his mouth. "Jamie, you want some?"

"Yeah, but without the kissing please. Ugh." Aria and Ezra laughed, and gave James a little. "Daddy, can I mix it?" James asked with pleading eyes.

"Sure buddy." Ezra handed his son the whisk, and dragged a chair over to the counter so James could reach the bowl.

While James was stirring the batter, Aria went over and wrapped her arms around Ezra's torso, snuggling into the black v-neck t-shirt he was wearing. She inhaled deeply, enjoying Ezra's distinctive scent; his cologne mixed with coffee and paper.

She looked up, placing her chin on his chest.

"You okay?" He said quietly, not wanting James to hear.

Aria nodded silently, but went a shade of red darker than normal. She chastised herself in her head for letting Hanna's words for getting to her like they did; but then again, Hanna was one of her best friends, and Aria had always known her to tell her the truth.

Ezra gently moved a piece of hair out of Aria's face, smiling. Their moment was interrupte small squeal from James, who had just dropped the whisk into the bowl of batter.

Aria giggled and let go of Ezra, crossing the room to go help her son. When he turned to look up at his mom, Aria couldn't help but let out another round of laughter; somehow the little boy had managed to get batter all over his face. Aria took a serviette and wiped the splotches of batter away.

"I think we're going to let daddy finish this off, okay buddy? How about we go watch TV or something?"

James' brilliant blue eyes lit up, and he bounded happily across the room. "Okay Momma!"

Just as quickly as James had left, Aria found herself once again in Ezra's arms. She looked up into his piercing eyes; the same ones copied into their son, and she let out a small gasp. The look in Ezra's eyes awed Aria. He pressed his lips to her temple, and then she felt his breath at her ear.

"I love you, you know that?"

Just the words made Aria's stomach flip and her mouth go dry. She tried not to blush; it was amazing how he made her feel. It was something she hadn't felt in a long time. He pulled back, a devious grin on his face.

_Say it._

Aria hesitated for a second, the words stuck in her throat. All she could do was gaze into her boyfriends' eyes, and hope he got the message. _Spit it out. You're being a chicken. _Again she tried to get the three small words out, but for some reason she couldn't do it.

Ezra looked at her in wonder, marveling at her struggles with deciding what to say. Her smile was infectious; as soon as the corners of her mouth turned up, it made him grin even bigger. He slowly leaned in, placing a cautious kiss on her lips.

"Ew!" Aria and Ezra snapped apart only to see James looking at them from the couch. "The TV won't work." He said unhappily, folding his tiny arms together in displeasure.

Aria wrinkled her nose at Ezra and went over to help James with the television, while Ezra started on cooking the pancakes.

Later that afternoon, Aria, Ezra and James were sitting on a blanket under a large oak tree, enjoying the sunny weather. Aria's head was leaning on Ezra's shoulder in silence. The pair was quiet while their son talked animatedly about his adventures at school.

Ezra smiled internally at the moment he was in; he was holding the girl he'd been in love with for years, along with their son, spending an afternoon at the park. The only thing that made it less than perfect was the fact that he knew that something was bothering Aria; Hanna had said something to her the previous night that had really upset her. Without noticing, he pulled her closer to him. The instinctive need to protect her was something that was never going to leave him.

It was as though she was his kryptonite; no matter what happened, he'd always protect her. No matter the costs.

Ezra was brought out of his thoughts when James called him.

"Daddy, can I go to the park? Evan is over there with his Mommy as well. Please?"

Ezra looked over to Aria for approval, and she nodded her head.

"Okay buddy, go have fun."

Aria shifted off Ezra for a second, wiping some peanut butter of Jamie's face. "Just stay where we can see you, okay? No going away from the playground unless Evan's mom, or daddy and I are with you. Promise?"

James nodded and scurried off to join his friend on the swing set. "Okay. Love you Momma." He shouted over his shoulder as he headed towards the playground.

Aria just curled up to Ezra's side, enjoying the warmth it offered. While it was sunny out, there was a cool breeze passing through the park, causing Aria to shiver a little. The pair was comfortable with the quiet, but Ezra was biting his tongue, trying to figure out whether or not he should press Aria for more answers about the guy she had vaguely mentioned last night.

Aria yawned, being snuggled up against Ezra was more comfortable than she had thought it would be, and in all honesty she hadn't had a very good sleep the previous night. All night her sleep was plagued with thoughts and nightmares about what Hanna had said.

"Tired?" Asked Ezra, looking a tad concerned. "I know you didn't sleep well; you tossed and turned all night."

Aria just shrugged, watching James squeal in glee while racing down the slide with his friend.

"If you want to talk, you know I'm here." He murmured, stroking her hair. She leaned into Ezra's shoulder, fighting with herself. There was always the option to tell him the truth, about everything, but then there was the possibility that, just as Hanna had suggested, Ezra might leave. _Over thinking is a bitch._

"It's nothing, really. I told you last night, I'm done with it." The words had a sense of finality to them; Ezra knew not to press on. But yet, he knew that he'd just skimmed the surface. He remembered a while ago commenting on how he knew Aria had been broken; perhaps this was the situation that caused it.

The idea of Aria getting hurt caused that protective instinct to stir within him once again, tempting him to never let Aria go, to prevent her from ever leaving his arms again. He sighed, knowing that it was unrealistic, there was no way, no matter how much he wished it, that she could lie in his arms forever.

He looked down to see that Aria's eyes were beginning to droop; tired from the restless night she'd had the previous evening. The park was peaceful enough for her drowsiness to catch up to her.

"You're beautiful." Ezra whispered, hoping she'd catch it while still conscious.

A faint smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "You seem to tell me that a lot, Mr. Fitz."He gently pressed his lips to her forehead, before she snuggled in closer to him.

"I guess I do, but it's true. I think I'm the luckiest guy on the planet. I'm dating the girl of my dreams who's both beautiful inside and out, and I have the most amazing son; both of which I wouldn't give up for anything."

Aria opened her eyes, which were brimming with tears. "I'm just as lucky. You're so good with James; he adores you, and you never complain about anything. I know that you're perfectly happy spending a night in with me and James just as you would be if you were to go out with your friends." Aria took a deep breath, wiping the forming tears out of her eyes. "And the way you look at me sometimes."

"It's because when I look at you, I see my future. Here, with you and Jamie." Ezra muttered, a small pink glow spreading across his complexion.

Aria smiled slightly, and placed a quick kiss on his lips. "I think Hardy is right. We're like a couple out of a television show. But you know what?"

"What?"

Aria sat up and leaned her forehead against Ezra's, looking him in the eyes. "I wouldn't have it any other way." Ezra chuckled quietly, and leaned in for a kiss. Aria responded enthusiastically, entwining her fingers in his hair and cautiously pushed her tongue along his lips. Reluctantly, Ezra pulled away.

"I'm all for this, but not in a park, with our son thirty feet away." He smiled and dropped his voice to a whisper. "And that elderly couple sitting on the bench across the way is giving us weird stares." He nodded in their general direction, and when Aria looked over, she met two piercing stares, causing her to bury her head in Ezra's chest out of embarrassment.

"Oh my god. I'm getting glared at by old people; that's like the international sign for you did something horrible. I'm going to take a nap and hopefully by then they'll be gone."

Ezra laughed, reaching over to the bag they had packed everything in. "Fine with me; I'm going to read my book." Aria closed her eyes, the last sound she heard was her boyfriend rummaging around for his novel.

What seemed like an eternity later, Aria awoke to the sound of a familiar delighted squeal coming from the playground. She groggily opened her eyes to see two blurry figures on the swing set; James who was on the swing, getting higher and higher, and Ezra who was pushing his son forward much to the little boy's delight.

Stretching out her limbs, Aria propped herself upright, leaning against the large tree that they'd settled under. She had noticed that Ezra had tucked his jacket underneath her head, acting as a pillow. _How sweet._

She blinked a couple times more, and was finally able to focus on the scene set before her. This was one thing that she'd never forget, it was one of those memories that emblazons itself in your mind forever. Just a few weeks ago, James had been begging for this.

"_Mum, why don't I have a daddy? Other kids get their daddies to push them on the swing at the park, but I don't. Everyone has a daddy right?"_

The only person who looked happier than James was Ezra. He had a huge grin plastered on his face, and was clearly chuckling to himself about James' reaction. Before Ezra could notice her, Aria quickly strode across the park, taking the back route and making sure that Ezra's back was to her the entire time.

She silently giggled to herself while sneaking up behind her boyfriend. I mean, sure it was a bit childish, but who cares? She certainly didn't. As soon as she got within range, Aria jumped onto Ezra's back, and pressed her lips to his neck. "Boo."

After recovering from the shock, Ezra knelt down so Aria could get off his back. "Good morning." He said, pecking her quickly on the cheek before turning around and giving James another big push. "Have a nice nap?"

"Okay thanks daddy!" James shouted as he swung forwards on the swing, clearly insinuating that Ezra could stop pushing. Ezra took a step back. "No jumping off the swing buddy. I don't want you getting hurt. Wait until it stops moving, okay?" James agreed, and Ezra took Aria's hand, guiding her towards the other set of swings.

"You're amazing with him Ezra." Aria stated simply as she sat down on the closest swing, fidgeting with her and Ezra's entwined fingers. "You should see how he lights up when I tell him you're coming over." She took a breath, pausing before her next sentence. "I never told you this, but when he first found out you were 'coming home', it looked like he'd just won the lottery. So, thank you." Ezra smiled gently, and pulled Aria up towards him.

"You don't need to thank me for that. Really. Just hearing how happy it makes him, well, the both of you happy is enough." He murmured. The pair stood against the swing set pole; Ezra had his arms wrapped around Aria's small frame, and the pair watched as their son flew back and forth, enjoying the spring day.


	16. Chapter 16

Before he knew it, it was Monday morning again, and Ezra was knocking on Aria's front door, coffee in hand, ready to take James to school. When no one answered, he let himself it, only to see Aria pacing around the house on the phone.

"What do you mean you're already on your way to the airport? Her flight doesn't get in for another hour and a half!" She shrieked into the phone, grabbing the coffee and flashing a quick smile at Ezra. "Okay then. Yeah I'll ask him. Bye Spence."

Ezra stood in the door, wide eyed. "What's going on?"

Aria took a big sip of coffee before answering. "I marked down Jamie's PD day for next Monday. It's today, and I have no one to watch him. Ella and Byron have to work, Spencer and Toby are picking up Emily from the airport today, Hanna and I are not exactly on good terms, and I have no idea where Caleb is. He's not picking up."

"Aria, take a breath. You're sure no one can take him?"

She nodded. "Positive. Do you think Ed will mind if I bring him to school with us?"

"Not if you explain our situation. Besides, he's the principal, and he's a perfectly reasonable guy." Ezra said, placing a kiss on Aria's cheek. "Where is James, anyways?"

Aria ran a hand over her hair, pushing it out of her face. "Upstairs. I told him he could sleep in a little bit. Would you mind waking him up?" She said, smiling sweetly. He nodded, and quickly hopped up the stairs, making his way to his son's room.

"Jamie, wake up." Ezra said, slightly nudging the sleeping boy, trying to get him up. All that escaped James was a little grumble, before he brought his hands up to wipe the sleep out of his eyes.

"Morning daddy." He said quietly.

"Morning buddy. You're going to come to work with your mom and I today, how does that sound?" Ezra asked, picking his son up.

Immediately James' eyes snapped open, wide with interest. "Really?"

"Yep. How about we get some food in you, and then you can get dressed." Ezra carried James downstairs, sitting him down at the kitchen table.

It was as if Aria had kicked into overdrive, already packing Jamie's lunch, while trying to make breakfast for the three of them, and trying to gather up her scattered lesson plan for the day. Ezra marveled at the speed that she got everything done at. Aria noticed him watching her with interest and prompted him for an answer.

"You're quite the multi-tasker." He said, bringing a spoonful of oatmeal to his mouth.

Aria smiled, pouring some orange juice into a small red cup for James.

"When you're a single mom, multitasking is the _only_ way to get things done. I've become a pro." She stuffed a file into her bag, and put James' Cars themed lunch bag in as well. She pecked Ezra on the cheek before flitting upstairs.

Ezra sat at the table with his son, the two silently munching on their breakfasts.

"Three minutes to finish that up James, then come and get dressed!" Aria yelled from upstairs.

At his mom's request, James began shoveling spoonfuls into his mouth, trying to scrape the bowl clean. Finished, he pushed the bowl away from him, and looked up at his dad, smiling.

"All done." He said, happily. "I'm ready to go."

Aria was rushing as she practically ran into her first period class, James on her hip.

"Sorry I'm late, class. I forgot my son had a PD day today, and I've been scrambling to get to school." The class murmured in interest at their teachers' young son. Most of them were doing the math in their heads, figuring out just about how old Aria had been when she had James.

"Yep, most of you can figure out what age I had him." She said nodding, then clapped her hands over James' tiny ears. "Living proof that this kind of thing _does_ happen, so when you make decisions, be prepared for the possibility."

After seeing many raised eyebrows coming from her class, she quickly added something in her defense.

"Of course he's the best thing that's ever happened to me, no regrets whatsoever." She took her hands away, and James looked up at his mom. "Now, that's all for your morning health lesson. Everybody open your books to chapter five."

While her class was ruffling with their things, Aria brought out the small bag of toys she had packed for James and placed them on her desk. "Here sweetheart. You can sit at my desk and play, okay?" James nodded quietly, looking extremely nervous. It was to be expected, him being around all of the older kids.

Aria was about fifteen minutes into the class before she felt James tug on the hem of her dress. She looked down to see his blue eyes staring up at her. "Momma." He whispered.

She crouched down to be at level with him. "Yes baby?"

"Can I take some paper to colour with?" He said, pointing to the sheets of blank paper sitting on the corner of her desk.

Aria nodded. "Of course."

He smiled bashfully and scurried back to the desk, immersing himself in a world of colours. Aria smiled, and went back to teaching. Soon enough, the period was over and her class was leaving, some of them even waving to James as they left. Smiling shyly, he tentatively waved back.

Second period came and went; her least productive class had actually done fairly well for the day. They got through the lesson in no time, and the rest of the class was spent discussing themes in their current novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

As most class discussions do, the topic ended up veering off in a wide arc, and the class ended up conversing amongst themselves, and a group of five or six students ended up doting on James. Even though he's a shy kid, Aria couldn't help notice about how he basked in the attention.

A couple of the girls complimented him on his drawings, which he beamed at. Even one of the more 'popular' guys in the class let James wear his hat. Aria giggled as the cap fell over his eyes, the hat clearly way too large for James' little head.

As the last of the students trickled out of the classroom, Aria pulled out James' lunch bag, as well as a container of salad for herself. After munching on a small peanut butter sandwich, (crusts cut off of course) James pulled out a small bag of animal crackers from his lunch bag.

"Momma, you like aminal crackers right?" James asked, shuffling a lion and zebra cracker around so they were side by side. It was funny, even though James was remarkably fluent with about every other word in his four year old vocabulary, he had a strong tendency to switch the m and n in 'animal.'

"Of course buddy. You know the giraffes are my favourite."

The little boy shifted a little in his seat, looking up at his mother. "If you had aminal crackers would you share them with daddy?"

Aria expression changed a little; her eyebrows furrowed together and tone of voice became a little more cautious. "Of course I would sweetie. And you could have some too."

Biting the head off a hippo, James continued.

"Momma. Evan and Matt made fun of me on Friday cause I shared my aminal crackers with my friend Jaz. She's a girl." he stretched his little arm out and grabbed another cookie from Arias desk. "They said I like her. But girls have cooties. Yuck."

Aria let out a small giggle, pulling her son into her lap. "Sweetie, just because you shared your snack doesn't mean you have to like her."

"But you'd share your crackers with daddy! And you like him."

"When you're a grownup and you share your crackers it's different." Aria snickered a little, but at the same time it worried her. Four years old and already worrying about girls. Slowly but surely, James was starting to grow up, and whether she liked it or not, Aria wasn't ready for that. "Besides, you should be sharing. It's a very nice thing to do."

James seemed to ignore the tail end of his mother's remark. "So if you like them a lot, you'd give them more."

Aria nodded, her eyebrows creased together. "Sure." She said, stretching out the word.

"Then you'd give daddy a lot of them." James stated matter-of-factly, arranging a couple crackers on the desk. He carefully sorted them into groups of animals; lion, zebra, giraffe, and hippo.

Quickly snatching the only giraffe on the desk, Aria popped it in her mouth. "What makes you say that Jamie?"

"You smile lots. And you sing a lot more. And you kiss lots." James counted each of his three reasons on his tiny fingers, crinkling his nose at the last one. "I like it when you're happy Momma."

The smile on Aria's face couldn't have been any bigger if she tried.

"You make me happy too, sweetie." She said, kissing the top of her sons head. "I love you. Always remember that."

James looked at his mother a curious look on his face. Those three words had always been in his life. By his Momma, his Aunties, and his Uncles. Now his Daddy. "Momma, do you love daddy too?"

Aria remembered reading somewhere that on average, four year olds ask about four hundred questions a day. Out of all the possibilities for four _hundred_ questions, this was one that she definitely wasn't prepared for. In all honesty, she was prepared to lie, and give her son the 'kid friendly' answer, but for some reason she felt that she owed it to James to give him the truth.

"Yeah, I do."

James nodded and went back to eating his animal crackers and rolling around an electric green car on Aria's desk. The information didn't surprise him, or make him think about anything differently. In fact, it made perfect sense, to him at least.

If everyone in his life loved him, why shouldn't they love each other? Especially his mom and dad. It just made sense.

For the rest of the lunch period, Aria and James stayed in the classroom, drawing and playing cars. It was moments like these that she truly treasured. The only thing that would have made it better was if Ezra had been there, instead of stuck supervising the cafeteria. The next period, Aria had already arranged to have James stay with Ella so she could do some lesson planning.

Clearing her desk off, Aria went through all of the pictures that James had drawn that day. Most of the pictures were of cars or animals, but a few 'family' portraits made Aria smile. She placed her favourite, a picture of Ezra pushing James on the swing, while Aria was sitting under a tree, in the top drawer of her desk.

She had a collection of these drawings; ones that she'd keep from over the years. She'd be able to look back and see how James had seen things from his eyes.

And one day when he's older, hopefully he'd be happy to have the memories too.

Later in the day, Ezra was in the middle of his fifth period class, when a knock came from his door.

"Sorry guys, this will just be a minute." He said, excusing himself from the lecture he was giving on the use of rhetorical devices.

Ezra opened the door, only to see James standing in front of him. "Momma said I could come see you if I was quiet." He said simply. In one hand was a car along with some crayons and in the other was some paper.

Clearing his throat, Ezra looked across the hall, to see Aria staring at him, biting her lip. Her look was more of an "our secret is out" look than anything. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Ezra picked James up and balanced him on his hip, closing the door behind him.

The kids looked up from their cell phones, having taken the opportunity to freely text in class with no questions asked.

"Hey Mr Fitz, isn't that Ms. Montgomery's kid?" One of the kids shouted out.

Ezra nodded. "Yes, he is."

James looked at Ezra curiously, lost at what was going on. "Daddy, can I colour with this pen?" James asked, reaching for a pen situated on Ezra's desk.

The sound of jaws dropping echoed through the classroom. Then, silence. For the second time, Ezra cleared his throat. "He's also my son."

There was an eruption of chatter coming from the front of the classroom, from the four girls that Ezra remembered Aria describing to be like her, Spencer, Hanna, and Emily. From that, the rest of the class indulged in conversation as well.

This was high class Rosewood gossip; ex teacher and student have a kid together? Ezra had a feeling he and Aria were going to be the talk of the town for a while. His primary concern was keeping James away from it all though. The last thing he wanted was his son to get sucked into the traps of Rosewood at such a young age.

Trying to diverge the class from the new revelation in his and Aria's relationship, Ezra tried to get the class to focus. "Okay, no big deal guys. Back to the lesson."

The problem was that no matter what Ezra did, nobody really paid attention to the lesson. They were all on their phones, or passing notes, or whispering quietly to one another. It's not like it went unnoticed to him either; it's just that the problem was too big for Ezra to handle, so he just let it be. He wasn't in the mood to hand out detentions today. He noticed that the only student who was even kind of paying attention was the girl that Aria had nicknamed 'Spencer Jr'.

It was no surprise that by the time that the bell rang at the end of the day, the word had gotten out about Ezra, Aria and James. It seemed as though the entire school was talking about it.

As quickly as she could, Aria crossed the hallway to Ezra's classroom, who she found packing his briefcase. "I talked to Ella today, and she said she could take Jamie for a few hours because she knows we have to grade all of the Shakespeare essays. How's that sound?"

"Good."

The air in the room was very tense; the two adults wanted to discuss what had just gone down the last period, but James remained oblivious, waiting for his Grandma to show up. Ezra and Aria were leaning against the edge of Ezra's desk, watching as James scribbled on the chalkboard, fascinated.

"Well that was an interesting class." Ezra whispered. 

Aria leaned her head on his shoulder. "We'll be the talk of Rosewood." She sighed wistfully. She thought she was done with the whole drama of Rosewood years ago, after graduating high school and finally getting away from the whole Ali ordeal. It seems like fate had different plans.

Ella knocked on the door, and strode in.

"Grandma!" James dropped the white piece of chalk, and ran into his grandmother's arms.

"Hi buddy, how did you like being at work with your mom and dad today?" She asked politely, but Aria could tell that she was dying to say something.

"It was fun. I like it here."

Ella smiled. "Well, you have all the time in the world to get to high school. For now, you can stay as a little Jamie, okay?" James giggled and agreed.

"So, I'll be seeing you two around six-ish?" Ella asked.

Aria nodded. "About then. I'll text you when I know for sure."

"By the way, I heard in the teacher's lounge that the principal wants to see you two. I'm sure it's nothing big." She quickly added on the end, as she and James left the classroom, not wanting to make a big deal about it because of James.

But Aria and Ezra looked at each other, knowing that it was something big. There was absolutely no coincidence involved in this situation. And as if on cue, an announcement came on the loud speaker, the principal's voice ringing through the halls of Rosewood High.

"_Would Ms. Montgomery and Mr. Fitz please report to the main office as soon as possible. Thank you."_

Aria paled. This was not good.

From the hallway, she could hear James giggling. "Ooh, momma and daddy are in trouble!" You could tell by his tone that he was joking. But as the door shut firmly, Aria couldn't help but think how right he might be.


	17. Chapter 17

Aria and Ezra had been sitting in the principal's office for a solid ten minutes, waiting while he sorted out a problem with a student down in the guidance office. They sat in the two chairs in silence, both were too nervous to say anything.

Aria's thoughts ran rampant, switching between all of the possible reasons why they had been called down. The most prevalent being Ezra and her relationship; she wasn't exactly sure that you were allowed to date your co-workers. Her greatest fear was one of them possibly losing their job. Other possibilities included her bringing James to school, or the fact that he was four and a half, placing Ezra in hot water with the whole student/teacher thing.

Rushing in, the principal gave them both a curt nod before sitting down at his desk.

"Ezra, Aria." The principal gave them a glare that made Ezra feel like he was shrinking in his seat. "It's been brought to my attention that the two of you are now romantically involved. Now, neither I nor the school board have a problem with this, as long as the pair of you act in a professional manner during the school day." He paused, his gaze darting between the two of them. "I trust that you'll be able to handle yourselves, and make sure that my requirement is met." He concluding, looking over both Aria and Ezra.

Ezra cleared his throat, shifting in the uncomfortable wooden chair.

"Absolutely Ed. I can assure you that Aria and I will conduct ourselves in a way that represents Rosewood High in a positive manner."

_That's about as professional as I can sound. Anything else and it'll sound like I'm reading off a prompter._

Ezra nodded, mentally adding that he and Aria should go over some ground rules when they're working. A small list popped into his head. _No texting, or PDA. Basically anything that could cost us our jobs._ A part of him was hesitant to commit to that idea, because in all honesty, a bit of teasing was fun here and there.

The principal inclined his head, fidgeting with the name plate on the front of his desk. "Now that that matter has been addressed, there is another thing that I'm... _required_ to look into." Now instead of looking upon Aria and Ezra as if they were the inferior beings in the room, Ed looked slightly uncomfortable. "As you know, Rosewood High has a zero tolerance policy for student-teacher relationships."

Ezra riskily glanced sideways at Aria, just looking out of the corner of his eye. On the outside, she looked as calm and collected as ever. But Ezra noticed a few things that the average eye couldn't pick up on. He could see that her hand was slightly clutching the arm of the chair, and it seemed as if she was biting the inside of her cheek.

He forced himself to take a breath.

If he wasn't panicking himself, Ezra probably would've commented on how she looked cute when she's nervous.

"Now, your son is four and a half, correct?"

"Yes." Aria said plainly. Biting her cheek had worked, her voice sounded rather normal. Inside her stomach was doing back flips. This was bad._ Really bad._

"Now, that's making you around eighteen when you got pregnant with him. Right?"

_This needs to be believable._ She thought to herself. Furrowing her eyebrows in confusion, Aria murmured a clear, 'yes'.

The principal let out a breath, scratching the back of his neck. "I don't mean to push any boundaries when I ask this, but Ezra had only been your teacher the year before. If my memory serves correctly, there were certain... rumors that were flying around, insinuating-"

Before he could finish of his sentence, Ezra cut him off. "Ed, I wasn't her teacher when we started our relationship. Don't worry." _Let him take that as he will. _Ezra thought to himself.

The principal let out a sigh of relief. "That's good to hear Ezra, really. It would've been a pain to have to replace you. I know you're a good man." The three adults stood up at the same time. "Thanks, Ed." Ezra extended his hand, which was quickly met by the principal's brisk hand shake. "And Aria, it's only been a few weeks, and the students already love you. Keep up the good work." Aria blushed, her cheeks now highlighted with a light pink. She smiled graciously. "Thank you."

Ed straightened his tie, looking into one of the pictures hanging in his office to check and see that it was fine. "I'm really sorry to kick you two out like this, but I have a meeting with the superintendent. I'd better not keep her waiting."

Ezra and Aria said they understood, and quickly exited the office. Aria was still holding her breath, almost expecting for the principal to call them back and admit he knew that they were lying, and hand them both a pink slip. Instead, she and Ezra walked back to room 216 in silence, staying fairly rigid until behind the closed door of the classroom.

Aria let out a big sigh, then looked at Ezra suspiciously. "I wasn't her teacher when we started the relationship?" She quoted, mocking his tone as best she could. "That's one way of putting it!" She whispered viciously.

Ezra snorted, a sly grin growing on his face. "Hey, it wasn't a lie." Before she realized it, Aria was backed up against the classroom's blackboard, still fresh with the note she had written for her last period class. "Besides, you went along with it."

Aria rolled her eyes, attempting to side step out of the position she was in. Smiling cockily, Ezra stuck his arm out best her, effectively trapping her. Ezra leaned in, so their lips were almost touching. "Let him assume what he wants. He'll choose the more preferable option to avoid conflict. What matters is that _we_ know the truth."

Aria had been focusing on his lips for most of what he had been saying, the words now lost to her. Tentatively, she looked up, and in that instant Ezra pressed his lips to hers. What he wasn't expecting was for her to respond the way she did. He could feel her hands wrapping around his waist, pulling him closer to her. Her tongue was running against his lips, baiting him to play along.

Aria broke the kiss, before trailing kisses up Ezra's neck. As much as it killed him, Ezra pulled away. "Ms. Montgomery, what happened to 'conducting ourselves in a professional manner'? Ezra wore his signature boyish smile.

"You suggestion, not mine." She mumbled.

Ezra leaned his head over so his lips were at his girlfriend's ear. "Very true, but I just remembered I have about twenty essays to grade, and so do you. Can we finish this later?"

Reluctantly, Aria pulled back, pecking Ezra on the cheek. She crinkled her nose, scrunching her face up. "You started it. Tease."

"You have an adorable scrunchie face." He stated plainly, stroking her face.

"What?"

Ezra rolled his eyes and chuckled under his breath. "The face you just made. It's quite cute."

Aria made her way back to her desk, sitting down.

"Thanks, babe." She said, laying the sarcasm on thick.

"Oh! Before I forget, Spencer asked me to invite you to dinner with us tonight. Emily gets back in town so we're throwing her a 'welcome back party' tonight at the Apple Rose Grille. Want to come?" Aria asked animatedly, biting on the end of her pen.

"Sure. If we ever finish marking." Ezra said, grinning.

They both started on the mound of essays that needed marking to be handed back in a couple days time. Before long, Ezra realized he had been reading the same sentence over and over for a good five minutes. His mind seemed to be elsewhere; meaning anywhere except his grade twelve's Shakespeare essays.

Looking up, he saw Aria's face, intent on reading whatever the student had written. Ezra groaned internally, frustrated. On one hand, he had to get the essays graded, but on the other, being in a room with Aria was fairly... distracting.

The teacher inside Ezra told him to finish his work, and then he could go play. But then again the guy inside of him fought for a break. _Procrastination, man's greatest enemy._ He thought to himself.

Having James at work with him had caused some questions to start stirring around in his mind. At the moment, his desire to know the answers was more prominent then the need to mark thirty essays. When he zoned back in, Ezra found Aria staring at him, one eyebrow raised.

"What's the matter? Can't focus because you're still stunned by my 'adorable scrunchie face'?" She put air quotes around the phrase as she spoke.

Ezra smiled. "Not exactly. Inner struggle."

"Over?"

Ezra capped his pen and put it down on the desk. "Marking or procrastinating. Both are quite enticing options." He pulled a chair out from one of the desks beside him and put his feet up. "Can I ask you something?"

Aria stood up and walked over to him, uncapping the pen and placing it in his hand. "Finish all of these essays, and you can ask me then. Sound fair?"

He raised an eyebrow and nodded. "Perfectly." _Sounds like a good deal to me._ An hour and a half later, Ezra had finished marking his essays. With an incentive, the time seemed to be flying by; reading twenty fairly repetitive essays didn't seem like such a tedious task when there was a reward at the end.

Ezra dropped his pen on the desk, and looked up with a sly grin on his face. "That's it, all done." He said, looking satisfied with himself.

Aria looked up. "So what's your question, handsome?"She said, biting her lip.

Ezra looked down at the papers lying on his desk. For a second, he hesitated, unsure of how to phrase the question. There were just so many things that came with their situation; so much that had gone unanswered, there was a lot Ezra had wondered about in five years.

"Was there ever a point... at all, where you were going to tell me you were pregnant?" For some reason, that particular point had been in his head all day; Ezra wasn't exactly sure what caused him to think of it, but through a trail of errant thoughts, the answer was something he had to find out.

Aria licked her lips, thinking. She started hesitantly. "Yes. At first I was determined to keep it to myself, but the girls found out. I was a bit careless , and Spencer figured it out. To be honest, I was going to tell you before I left for university." Tears began to form in the corner of her eyes. "I must have walked around your block for hours." She sighed, wiping the tears away. "But in the end I chickened out. I made up my mind on that walk that I was being selfish, ruining your life. So I kept James my little secret."

_Aria sat on the edge of her bed, tears streaming down her face. Eighteen. Eighteen and she was going to have a baby. Ezra's child, of course, but that just made the situation even worse. Never in her life had she been so thankful that none of her family was home. _

_In a small fit of rage, she threw the empty test box across the room, letting it smack the door with a pathetic thump._

_Pregnant. She couldn't even whisper the word out loud; that would make it a reality. Clearly this was anything but. How was she going to tell her parents? After she and Ezra had been forbidden to see each other, telling them wasn't exactly going to be an option. Ezra. Oh god, and telling him would be a million times worse. Just the thought of having to sit him down and tell him that she was pregnant caused another set of violent sobs that racked her body._

"_Aria?" A voice sounded from the hall._

_The seed of panic that had arisen was only subdued slightly by the fact that it wasn't her parents. Spencer pushed through the door, to see her friend sitting on her bed, her knees brought up to her chest, sobbing like there was no tomorrow. _

"_Oh my god Aria, what's wrong?" _

_Aria couldn't even stop crying for a second to try and convince Spencer to leave. _

_Part of being a best friend included comforting in times of need; so fulfilling her duty, Spencer went to give her tiny friend a hug. Not before crushing something underneath her foot. Looking down in curiosity, Spencer picked up a crushed box._

"_Fuck." Spencer held up the box to Aria, asking a silent question._

_Aria just nodded, hiccoughing and then continuing to bawl her eyes out. Before long, Spencer had rallied Hanna and Emily over to the Montgomery's; three of the four girls sitting in silence, at a loss of what to say to their distressed friend._

_Eventually Aria had calmed herself enough to get a sentence out. "Don't tell anyone." The idea of anyone finding out, besides her best friends was appalling. The ease that came over her after remembering that there was no more –A gave her temporary relief. So far, this was their little secret._

_Hanna stopped rubbing Aria's shoulder for a second. "You're not telling Ezra? I mean, it is Ezra's, right?"_

_Spencer turned to Hanna with a look of disbelief, smacking her with a magazine that had been laying on the ground. "Oh my god Hanna! Of all things to say here, you say that? Of course it's Ezra's, who else's would it be, mine?"_

_Hanna shot Spencer a dirty look._

_Emily had been rather quiet through the entire ordeal, only consoling Aria. "Guys, stop. If she wants it a secret, it stays a secret. I mean, we've lied before. This is no big deal." She had a wavering smile on her face._

"_Can you guys stop referring to him as an it?"_

_Spencer, Hanna and Emily all stared at Aria in disbelief. _

_Aria shook her head. "Until proven otherwise, please refer to mine and Ezra's baby as a him. 'It' feels so... temporary." She scooped a spoonful of Half-Baked ice cream that Emily had brought with her, savouring the flavour._

"_So you're keeping it- him?" Spencer asked. _

_Aria nodded. She wanted this baby; there was no doubt in her mind about that._

_Hanna let out a long breath. "Wow. This is big, Ar." She had a very serious, un Hanna-esque demure about that statement. But it was true, and Aria knew it. Everything was going to change. And that was scary. There was no turning back now._

_A second of silence passed, even though it felt like an eternity._

"_Dibs on godmother!" Hanna squealed excitedly. _

_The four girls cracked up, and just for a moment, things lightened up, and Aria felt like things were going to be okay._

"Hey. Come back to me." Ezra breathed. Now Aria found him standing in front of where she was sitting on the desk. Aria nuzzled her head into his neck, breathing in his scent. It seemed intoxicating. She placed a gentle kiss on his jaw.

They stood there, just looking into each other's eyes, Aria stroking the side of Ezra's face. "I finished all of my essays too. What do I get?" Aria whispered.

"I get a question, you get a question. Fair?"

"Can I trade it for a kiss?" She asked, her eyes sparkling.

Ezra chuckled, "I like that much better."

As Ezra pressed his lips to hers, he could feel her smiling. 


	18. Chapter 18

"Hi, we're here for a reservation under Hastings?" Aria asked the young man handling seating at the Apple Rose Grille.

"Reservation for seven. Right this way please."

Tugging Ezra alongside her, she quickly scurried over to the table at the far back corner of the restaurant, and squealed in delight. "Em!" Aria let go of Ezra's hand and went to embrace her friend who had been gone just under a month.

"How was Texas?" Aria asked as she let go of Emily.

"It was great! The family reunion was awesome, and I think I've seen everything there is to see in Texas. I needed to come home!" Emily stepped back, and took a look at Aria's date.

Emily pointed at Ezra. "Woah. What happened here?"

The entire table burst out laughing. "Long story Em." Aria chuckled, entwining her hand with Ezra's. The pair sat down at the end of the table, towards the end of the booth, so Aria was at the head of the table, and Ezra saw at the corner. On Aria's right was Toby, who sat next to Spencer on the chair side of the table. On Ezra's left was Hanna, and beside her was Emily. Everyone chatted amongst each other, until Emily piped up, curious about Caleb's absence.

"We're on a break." Hanna stated nonchalantly while sipping casually on her vodka soda. "I made a bit of an error in judgement so now we're spending a little bit of time apart."

Spencer scoffed. "A bit of an error?' That's how you define practically rejecting his proposal?"

"Oh my god, he proposed?" Emily shrieked, probably a little bit louder than necessary.

"Can we like, not talk about this now? Thanks."

The group agreed, so naturally they decided to settle on the next juiciest piece of news. Emily looked up and nodded towards Aria and Ezra at the opposite end of the table. "Care to explain how you two got together? I need real news, I'm tired of having to listen to my parents or family members repeat the same stories I've heard since I was eleven."

Ezra cleared his throat. "We bumped into each other in the grocery store, by accident, and the rest is history."

Impatiently, Emily rolled her eyes, placing her elbows on the table. "Oh come on. There has to be more than that. I'm starved of real information. Please?" She dragged out the 'e', flashing her best puppy dog eyes at Aria.

"Please, I'm a mom, I'm completely immune to the puppy dog look."

Ezra chuckled, absentmindedly swirling the small remainder of beer around his glass. "Oh really. Then how come last week when James asked for cookies when we went 'health food shopping' you caved after not even a second?"

Aria's jaw dropped in mock offense. "Oh come on. You've seen his eyes. You can't say no."

Ezra grinned. "I know. I perfected that look by the time I was four, it seems like he's inherited the talent. Are you insinuating that you can't say no to me either?"

Emily cleared her throat at the end of the table, trying to draw the pair out of the staring contest they had engaged in; icy blue against an earthy hazel. "Guys. I lied, I don't want to hear this anymore. You guys are just making me feel worse about being single." Emily took a large swig of her martini. "I mean I might as well just buy a bunch of cats, take up knitting and call it quits. There will be legends about me. 'Crazy Cat Lady Em'.

Being as fiercely protective of Emily as she was, Hanna had to throw her two cents in. "Em, you're not going to die alone. With cats. I heard Maya is in town again, why don't you give her a call?"

Aria tried to think back to when Emily and Maya had broken up; she was still pregnant with James, she remembered splitting a peach pie while watching the notebook with her to help numb the pain. Since then Emily and her had kind of been in the same boat; dating, but nothing worked out. Truth be told Aria could see right through the "I'm a strong, independent woman" charade she'd put up for the past few months, mostly because Aria had been there.

Absentmindedly, Aria ran her foot up along Ezra's leg underneath the table. What she wasn't expecting was for Toby to spit out the glass of water he had been sipping on after feeling a stray foot brush against his leg. After realizing what had just happened, Aria went beet red, covering her face with her hands. _Oh my god._ The entire table burst out laughing, Ezra laughing probably harder than the rest of her friends. "I'm so sorry Toby. I was thinking about-"

"Aria, you have your own boy toy, leave mine alone." Spencer jested, rubbing her hand up and down Toby's arm.

"Oh, a boy toy, that's what I am to you?" He asked, laughing.

"Oh my god, they even play footsie under the table! How cute!" Hanna said, before going back to a more subdued version of herself; remembering that not only were she and Aria still kind of fighting, but Caleb wasn't there to play footsie with her. "Any room in your cat lady house Em? I think I just might join you in the whole "die alone" thing."

"Oh come on Han, I'm sure you can Caleb will patch things up in no time" Aria said quietly. She and Hanna hadn't exactly made up after their huge blow out; but Aria was past the point of wanting to stab her with one of her exceptionally dangerous looking earrings. Downing the rest of her drink, Aria got up.

"I'm going to the ladies room. If the waitress comes by to take our order tell her I want a caeser salad and another drink."

Spencer agreed, and as Aria walked away she heard the clicking of heels from behind her. "Thought I'd join you." Hanna mumbled. The two girls walked to the washroom in peace, nothing but a small tremor of awkward bouncing back and forth between the friends.

As the door creaked shut, the two girls turned to face each other.

"I'm sorry." Hanna said with a sincere look in her eyes. "I really had no right to go after you and Ezra like that, I was a total bitch. I'm so sorry."

Aria put her purse down on the bathroom counter. "It's okay, I forgive you Han." The squeal that came out of Hanna probably could've shattered a glass, and somehow she managed to do a couple of happy hops in her sky high heels. _The many talents of Hanna Marin._ Aria smiled, she couldn't help but be overjoyed with the fact that she had her friend back again. "Just promise me you'll never bring up the Jas-"

"You have my word." Hanna said, animatedly crossing her heart for emphasis.

Feeling bad for the problems that she had probably caused, Hanna reached into Aria's bag as she heard the stall door click as it locked shut, smirking to herself. She quickly typed something out, but as she went to hit send, a horrible realization struck her: there was no service in the bathroom.

Glancing over to the stall, Hanna did some quick thinking and kneeled on the bathroom counter, raising the phone as high as she could. With the small ping of success, and the flush of a toilet, Hanna scrambled back down the counter, clumsily stuffing the iPhone back in Aria's purse.

The two waltzed back to their table, linked arm in arm. When she sat down, Aria took a look at Ezra, who looked as if he had seen a ghost. She placed a hand on his leg, concerned. "What's wrong?" She murmured, looking concerned. Ezra silently passed her the phone.

**You're lucky Hanna's with me, otherwise I would've dragged you in here. ;)**

"Oh my god. I need another drink." She whispered, as Aria looked at Ezra whose face was now just as red as Aria's had been earlier. "Hanna sent that, not me."

Trying to recover, Ezra came up with a retort. "Sure she did." He said, flashing his signature boyish grin.

"Hey lovebirds at the end of the table, care to share?" Hanna asked, smiling wide as she bit into the lime that had accompanied her drink.

Ezra and Aria just looked at each other and shook their heads. No way was Hanna going to win this one.

One salad, one slice of cake, and three more drinks later, Aria was stumbling on her way to Ezra's car before the whole gang headed over to Spencer's. Ezra had to hold her arm to make sure that she didn't fall on her face.

Ezra, Toby and Emily had been named designated drivers for the night, and it was a good thing they were. While Spencer and Hanna were reaching the breaking point, Aria was already on the borderline of tipsy and drunk. Emily had mentioned it because she was smaller than the rest of them, but before she could get into it they were getting dirty looks from other patrons in the restaurant, so they decided to pay the bill and leave.

To be honest, Ezra was surprised that they even lasted that long after Aria and Spencer's rendition of one of Taylor Swifts new songs, and Hanna trying to convince Emily that she should go after one of the waiters, who was clearly male.

Ezra looked over to Aria, and was amazed that she had managed to remain rather quiet during the short car ride to Spencer and Toby's house, glassily gazing out the window in wonder. That was, up until Ezra came to a halt at a red light.

"Ezra. Ezra." Aria whispered, shaking his arm.

"What is it, baby?"

Aria shrunk down in the passenger's seat. "It's staring at me." She lifted her head up slightly, just so her eye level was slightly above the window sill.

"What is?"

"The bus stop. Its staring at me Ezra. Make it stop." She whined. As she looked over to Ezra, knowing that the alcohol was getting to her head, she came up with a 'perfectly logical' solution. She closed her eyes, scrunching them shut. "You know... I'm pretty sure that if you kiss me, it'll stop. Then it'll know that I'm taken, by my extremely handsome boyfriend." Sure, that could be considered as logical. In her mind.

Ezra leaned over and pecked her chastely on the lips. "Better?"

"Mmhmm." Aria smiled tiredly, looking at Ezra through half-closed eyes. "You're all scruffy. I like scruff. It's all scratchy and stuff. You know what else is scratchy? Spencer's voice. Her and I should sing a song together. We could call ourselves the Sparias! That's a good idea."

"You did sing with her. Remember? You guys must've sang the chorus at least ten times." Ezra noticed that one moment she was looking at him, and the next she was passed out, face plastered against the window. He pulled out and texted Spencer.

**Aria's passed out, so I think we'll pass on the after party tonight. – Ezra**

He tossed his phone into the cup holder, and turned the car around, back towards Aria's house. Ten minutes later, as they pulled into the driveway, his phone emitted a quiet beep.

**okAY. aira always passes out tho and then gets a whole lot drunkerr. Fair warning. Oh and don't give her coffeee cuz that makes it worse. Aaahh no tobys tryna take the phone away he says that i shuldnt drink and text whoops okay byeee! -SSsS**

Ezra couldn't help but laugh as he carried Aria indoors. He was used to proper Spencer; the one that corrects people's grammar and is practically a human version of Google. Drunk Spencer, on the other hand, was immensely amusing. He'd be surprised if there wasn't a wanted poster with all six of their faces on it put up in the Grille; wanted for disorderly conduct and a lifetime ban from the restaurant.

Ezra put Aria down on her bed, and took off her heels. He casually placed the shoes in her closet, marvelling at the fact that she could even walk in the things; to Ezra they seemed like a death trap in the making. He went downstairs, closing and locking the door, grateful that James was staying over at Byron and Ella's; the last thing he needed was to watch him as well. In the split second that he had been downstairs, he heard a rumbling coming from upstairs.

"Aria?"

His response was a bunch of giggles coming from the bedroom. He kicked his shoes off and made his way upstairs. A plan was coursing through his head; all he had to do was get her to come down stairs and drink some water, hopefully that would sober her up a bit. At least enough to go back to sleep.

Every thought was pushed from his mind the moment he stepped in the bedroom.

"You coming to bed, baby?" Aria asked. But this wasn't like normal. In fact, it was far from normal, because _normally_ Aria went to bed in more than just one of Ezra's t-shirts. Normally she was wearingat least pyjama shorts.

_Oh my god. Okay. She's drunk. She's drunk, really, just get her downstairs._

Aria bounced on her knees on the bed, looking rather smug with herself as Ezra got closer. Before he could react, her lips were on his; and they certainly were persuasive. In the blink of an eye, his shirt was off. _No, no, no, stop. She's drunk. She needs to stop kissing me. _ Reluctantly, he pulled away, much to a disappointed, drunk Aria.

"Can I please have my shirt back?" He said in as charming a voice as he could muster.

Aria pouted; if she couldn't have her fun, then neither could he. Quickly, she slipped the deep blue v-neck over her head, and then proceeded to grab all of the shirts from her dresser that were Ezra's, and run downstairs, cackling wildly.

Ezra sighed and chased after her, but not before she managed to throw all of his shirts out the front door and onto the front lawn.

"How am I supposed to go get those now?"

Aria ran a finger down his chest. "Well, I suppose you could always go out and grab them. I mean, nobody's watching and if they were, you're not exactly hard to look at."

Ezra shook his head. He wasn't exactly comfortable with running outside, no matter what the time, with no shirt on. "How about you just give me back my shirt?" Aria shook her head. "Or I can just take it back."

"Ooh, is that your way of trying to get me out of my clothes? Or should I say your clothes?" Aria flipped the lock on the door, a devilish glint in her eye. She got on her tip toes and whispered in Ezra's ear. "And if not, I can be _very_ persuasive." Ezra felt a shudder travel up his spine. _Drunk. Drunk. She's so drunk. It's almost funny. _But no matter how many times he told himself that, he couldn't help but let his mind wander, and other reactions were certainly... happening.

Ezra stood, his back up against the front door, gazing at Aria as she walked back up the stairs. He felt it was morally wrong to do much more than kiss Aria when she was drunk; that he was positive of. But, the temptation was there, and even though he knew that nothing could ever persuade him to sleep with Aria while drunk, it didn't stop him from thinking about sleeping with her when she was sober; and at that moment it seemed like an awfully enticing thing to look forward to.

"You're thinking about me!" He heard Aria shout from upstairs.

Before climbing up the stairs, Ezra filled a glass with some water from the kitchen tap.

When he got to the bedroom, he found Aria sprawled out on the best, doing what he could best describe as making snow angels on the duvet.

"Babe, do you want some water?"

"Nope." She said plainly, continuing to flap her arms and legs on the mattress.

"What do you want then?"

"Come over here, and I'll tell you."

Ezra set the glass of water down on the end table and sat on the edge of the bed. He felt Aria shift over to him, and place a kiss on his neck. "You."

She pulled him back down on the bed, never letting his lips leave hers. Ezra's eyes snapped open when he felt her hands drunkenly fiddling with his belt buckle. "Aria, no."

"Why not?"

Ezra sat up, pushing her gently off of him, and handing her the glass of water. "You're drunk."

"I am not drunk."

Ezra scoffed. "Oh yeah, and earlier tonight you were telling me how the bus stop was staring at you."

"Soooooo. I don't get the problem here. I mean, if I love you, and you love me, then I don't see a problem with it." Aria looked up, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.

"No. When you're sobered up, we'll see if you even remember this, and we'll talk, okay? Now, drink up that water, and sleep it off. I'm going to go sleep on the couch, because I don't trust you and me in the same bed right now." He placed a kiss on her forehead and flicked the lights off as he left the room.

Now, he'd heard this phrase a lot during his life; drunk words, sober thoughts, and to be honest Ezra found a lot of truth in that. But while a part of him knew that it was the alcohol speaking, Ezra couldn't help but wonder if the 'I love you' part was sincere. He knew for a fact that he loved Aria, and that he had ever since he laid eyes on her in the bar when they first met. He just wanted to know that she loved him back.

On his way downstairs, her grabbed a spare pillow from the linen closet, and then unfolded the blanket from the couch. Ezra looked over to the clock on the oven. 11:36. Not to mention that it was only Monday night. Before drifting off into a deep sleep, Ezra realized that it would be a miracle if he could get Aria up in the morning.


	19. Chapter 19

Aria groaned at the incessant beeping of her alarm clock; her mind was foggy, and now was not the time for anything to be waking her up. Forget five more minutes, she needed another five hours. Tentatively, she opened the eye that wasn't smothered in a pillow to peek at the blaring alarm clock.

**5:45 am**

Immediately she slapped her hand down on the snooze button; at least now she had five more minutes of noise-free heaven. She looked over to the right side of the bed, expecting Ezra to be there. Instead an empty spot lay untouched from the previous night.

She propped herself up, wiping the sleep out of her eyes. That's when it hit her like a ton of bricks. It was as if a ghost had just smashed her temple with a hammer. Aria let out a loud moan, and dropped back down onto her pillow. When that offered little relief, she grasped blindly for Ezra's pillow, crushing that to her throbbing skull. She didn't notice Ezra's presence in the room until she felt the bed sink in the spot beside her.

"Good morning sleeping beauty." he said, chuckling.

All he got in response was an aggravated groan, muffled by a feather pillow.

"You do have to work today, you know." he stated simply.

"Go away." she mumbled into the pillow, attempting to swat him off with her free hand.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. I brought coffee."

Aria threw the pillow of the side of the bed and sat up slowly, willed by the idea of caffeine coursing through her veins. She grabbed the deep blue Rosewood High mug and took a sip of the heavenly beverage inside. Ezra sat quietly, waiting for her to address him. He knew better than to provoke her, prodding a hung-over Aria was probably something like poking a hibernating bear with a stick.

After draining a quarter of the coffee, Aria leaned over top of Ezra, trying to get a look at herself in the vanity.

"Oh my god." her hair was a mess; her makeup from last night had smeared, causing her to look like a raccoon, and she had a bit if dried up drool coming from the side of her mouth. "Ezra, how much did I have to drink last night?" she shrieked, sending an accusatory glance at her boyfriend, as if it was his fault.

Before he could even let out a syllable, another question came flying from Aria's lips. "Where are your clothes?!"

She had noticed that all he was wearing was his pyjama bottoms; and for a moment she let herself indulge in a little eye candy. _Damn_.

"Aria." Ezra's voice snapped her out if her fantasizing. He flashed a boyish smile at her. "It's quite rude to stare, you know."

Through her awful migraine Aria managed to smile. "Well then you shouldn't come over here sans shirt. Then I'd have no need to stare."

"If you weren't wearing it, maybe I would."

Aria looked down, and noticed she was wearing just his deep blue v neck tee shirt, which although it was large enough on her to cover up what she needed, she still felt rather awkward. She looked back to Ezra. "Why am I- we didn't..."

He shook his head."Never while you're drunk."

Aria grimaced as a wave of nausea went through her. "Speaking of which, how drunk was I?" She didn't think she had that much to drink, but then again she tended not to notice until it was too late.

Ezra fought back a laugh. "Drunk enough to have tried to educate Hanna and Emily on the different types of pixies." The mortified look on Aria's face set of a chorus of laughter from Ezra. "Let's see, there was Tinkerbell, and-" Ezra was smacked in the face with a pillow before he could finish.

"Hey, you asked for it!"

Aria rolled her eyes. "Okay, next question. Why am I in your clothes?" she took another hug sip of coffee before laying her head back down on the cold patch where her pillow had been resting before being used as a weapon on Ezra's face.

A blush spread across Ezra's complexion.

The pair jumped as the alarm clock turned on, beeping like there was no tomorrow.

"Story for another time." he said quickly, trying to get up off the bed. With a quick rush of caffeine fueled adrenaline, Aria grabbed Ezra's arm, pulling him back down with her.

She winced as she hit the bed.

"Tell me."

Ezra chuckled and shook his head. "I don't think so."

Aria ran her hand down his chest, baiting him to come out with the answer. She kissed up his neck, to his ear and whispered. "Pretty please?" Ezra groaned in frustration, trying not to get sucked in as Aria placed gentle butterfly kisses on his body.

He placed a hand on her face, bringing it up to meet his. "Maybe I would if I thought I wasn't going to be late for work. I think we have to go do this thing, called teaching? You know, make a living so we can support our little family."

Aria wrinkled her nose. "Haha, funny." She sighed as he placed a kiss on her cheek, and she lay back down again. "Ezra, is it bad if I play hooky from work?"

Ezra grinned as he grabbed one of the few dress shirts that he'd left in arias drawers, along with a pair of pants. "If you want I'll phone in right now and get a supply for you."

He heard the coffee mug hit the end table again. "Yes please."

After Ezra left, Aria got out of bed and popped a couple of advils, as well as made herself a meager breakfast of peanut butter and jam on toast before crashing again until around ten after eleven. She woke up, disorientated, after she felt someone hovering over her.

She peeked open her eyes to see Ezra's baby blues staring down at her. "Heya sleepy head."

"Hi yourself."

"How're you feeling?" He asked, gently brushing a stay piece of hair out of her face.

"Pretty bad. Am I a bad teacher for skipping out for a hangover?" She asked, sitting up and throwing her legs over Ezra's.

"No, I'm sure your students won't think any less of you for taking a 'sick' day. But I'm sure your friends won't let you live this one down." he grinned, and placed a kiss on her lips. "And neither will I."

Aria playfully smacked him on the chest, but wrapped her other hand around his neck. "Shut up." She wiped some of the sleep out of her eyes and surveyed her room. "Why are all of your t-shirts in a lump on the floor?"

"Well, last night you decided that only you could wear my shirts, and then threw all of those onto the front lawn, leaving me without a shirt." Aria couldn't contain herself, she doubled over laughing, grateful that the Advil had kicked in, otherwise her head would hurt too much to laugh. "Well I'm sorry, if that's any consolation."

Ezra smiled. Just hearing her laugh like that was consolation enough. She leaned in and kissed him. "Well what other embarrassing stuff did I do last night?"

She pulled away slightly, stroking his cheek. Ezra licked his lips, and ran his hand through his hair. "There was a lot of _that, _to be honest." He gently pushed a strand of hair out from her face, exhaling a breath he hadn't been aware he was holding. "I have to tell you something."

Aria's face darkened a little, her mouth forming into a small 'o'. "Okay, what is it?"

Ezra placed a hand on her knee, rubbing it softly. He'd been thinking about this all morning, whether he was going to tell her the whole story, or only parts; even while lecturing his first period class, he'd manage to drift off in the middle of a sentence, pondering about what he would say.

"Erm, so last night. You were kissing me. And then things got heavy." Even thinking about telling her this caused him to go red; he could feel his ears burning. "And so I told you to stop." He paused for a second too long, allowing Aria to interject. She shook her head. "Well, that's good; that's good right?"

Ezra slowly nodded. "But then you told me that if I loved you, and you loved me, then it was okay. Obviously things didn't get that far, and I went and slept on the couch, but I thought I owed it to you to tell you this." It felt like his face was on fire; Ezra got out the sentence as fast and coherently as he could.

Now it was Aria's turn for her ears to burn. "I was drunk." It was almost an automatic response. No thought process, no emotion flashed on her face when she said those three words. Not exactly the three words Ezra had wanted to hear when he told her this, and he had to admit it stung, just a little.

Just by the expression on his face, Aria could tell that she'd struck a chord; just for that half of a second where the hurt had been let through. She pressed her lips to his cheek, and tenderly caressed the side of his face.

"I'm sorry. It's just I'm not ready to say it, Ezra." She leaned her head on him, fitting herself into the crook of his neck. "It feels so real if I say it." She whispered.

Ezra pulled away a little, confused. "So you don't think what we have is real?"

The edge in his voice caused Aria's heart to beat faster than normal. "No, no. It's surreal. It's too good to be true; I feel like what we have is so perfect, and I feel like if I say 'I love you' I'm going to mess it all up, and I don't want that, because I just really lo- like being with you."

Ezra smiled, and kissed her softly. "Was that almost a slip up, Ms. Montgomery?"

"Hardly, Mr. Fitz."

Ezra then got up and offered to make lunch, using one of the few things he could cook; grilled cheese. Whether or not she cared to admit it, Ezra tried to get Aria to accept that grilled cheese, (along with mac and cheese) was the food of champions. _So simple, yet so delicious._

Before long, Ezra had to go back to work, and Aria was left with nothing to do around the house. The dishes were clean, there was no mess in James' room, the laundry was done, and even the office, which was known as the disaster area of the house, was spot free. With such a rare opportunity as this, Aria decided to crack open a book. She went into the office, and ran her finger over the spines of the book, trying to decide on which one to read.

Casually she came across To Kill A Mockingbird. She opened it to the first page, and scanned down the words. After a couple of chapters, the book had brought her thoughts back to being about Ezra; how much they both loved this book. It was a reminder of the relationship they had in high school. The relationship where she was so head over heels in love with him, it hurt. In love; such a huge phrase for two tiny words. Two tiny words that can mean so many different things.

Aria kicked her feet up on the foot rest in front of her.

Something bothered her about Ezra's confrontation. While she'd been aching to tell him for a while, the idea that he had some suspicion about her feelings freaked Aria out a little. The truth was she did love him; they way he runs his hand through his hair when he's nervous, or how he holds doors open for her, like a true gentleman. Most importantly how he cared for James. They were practically inseparable, and that was something that resounded in Aria's heart. It was as if her family was finally put back together.

Her family.

Aria placed the book on the table, and made a mad dash for her phone up in her bedroom. Quickly she punched in a number and hit call. The dial tone went on before the other end picked up.

"Hello?"

"EmilyI'mafraidtotellEzrathatI'minlovewithhim." As soon as she was done, Aria clapped a hand over her mouth.

Aria could hear a burst of laughter from the other end. "And why are you afraid?"

"Because I'm afraid to fuck it up." It was true. Life had a horrible tendency to go wrong when it seemed like things were finally going well, and this was something she was trying to avoid losing again.

Emily laughed again. "This is you an Ezra we're talking about. The couple who fought through the whole student /teacher thing, the pair who stood up to your parents, the pair who love each other more than anything. It'll be fine."

Aria sighed. "Yeah, well that doesn't help with the fact whenever I think about what I'm going to say, my heart beats like crazy. I'll probably end up screwing it up. Watch."

"Just tell him you chicken. He clearly wants to hear it."

"When though? I can just be sitting on the couch with him, watching Finding Nemo with Jamie and just lean over and be like 'oh by the way, I'm in love with you.' That's not going to go over well."

"Tell you what. I'll take James on Friday, and drop him off around two on Saturday. I need some quality time with him anyways. We can have a movie night, or something. Ask him what he wants to do and then text me so we can figure something out."

Aria considered it, mentally checking her schedule, confirming that there were no staff meetings, no play dates for James, and no other commitments that they'd already agreed to. When nothing came to mind, Aria let out a sigh of relief. "You're really a life saver, Em. I'll drop him off after work, if that's okay?"

"Yep, that's fine. Speaking of work, shouldn't you be in fifth period right now?"

Aria hesitated. "I might've gotten Ezra to phone in for me. I was really hungover this morning; I could barely sit up Em! Don't judge me."

Emily snickered. "No judging over here. Although the Grille might beg to differ; your and Spencer's rendition of Taylor Swift was pretty bad."

"Hey, I bet it was great." Aria responded in mock horror.

"Yes, sure, says the girl who can't remember a thing."

Aria scoffed. "I can remember some things. Anyways."

"Sure you can. Anyways, I have to get back to work, unlike some of us, who's boyfriends are wonderful and get us off work, so text me about the plans for Friday, okay?"

"Sure, okay, bye Em."

Aria hung up the phone, tossing it onto her bed. She leaned back, lying down on the bed, staring at the ceiling. For some reason, she had the strange urge to flap her arms; almost like snow angels. _Strange._ She considered it for a second, but then decided against it, and returned downstairs to make herself comfortable on the couch, propping open To Kill a Mockingbird on her knees.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the hours had passed, and the front door flew open, a concerned four and a half year old boy rushing in. "Are you still sick Momma?"

Aria placed a kiss on her son's forehead as she brought him to sit with her on the couch. "I'm feeling a lot better baby, it's okay." She brushed his hair back so it stuck up like an untidy nest on his head. James furrowed his brow, and placed a tiny hand on his mother's forehead, as if feeling for a fever. "Momma, you don't feel hot. But Daddy said you were sick, so I'm gonna make soup. Like you do for me."

Aria looked up to Ezra, who was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "Jamie, get daddy to help you, okay? I don't want you getting hurt."

Aria watched from the couch as James reached into the pantry closet and grabbed some instant noodles soup, handing three packages to Ezra. "I'll heat up the water, okay buddy?" James nodded, and proceeded to grab three spoons and place them on the table, with napkins underneath each one. Aria smiled as James went to work, taking it upon himself to make sure each napkin was folded properly. He was determined to make his little dinner perfect. A timer went off, and Ezra poured the boiling water into each one of the soup cups, and carried them to the table.

Aria graciously dipped her spoon into the soup, blowing on it so it would cool down. "This is going to be tasty, thank you sweetie. I'm sure I'll feel much better after this." Aria winked at Ezra, flashing him a knowing look.

"Welcome Momma." James absentmindedly spun the spoon in the bowl of soup.

"This reminds me; Ella asked me if we're free to go to dinner at her place on Saturday night." Ezra said, slurping some noodles off of his spoon, getting broth everywhere. James laughed, and tried to get a noodle to stay on his spoon for more than a second.

"Here Jamie, I'll get you a fork, okay?" Aria said, placing her cup on the table.

James hesitantly handed his spoon over. "But Momma, you don't eat soup with a fork. That's silly."

Aria laughed, as she grabbed a fork from the drawer and a napkin from the counter. As Aria made her way back to the table, Aria explained how this was an exception if she could save the carpet from an impending doom of being stained with soup forever. She handed James his fork, and then wiped the spilled soup off of his face and the coffee table.

After he successfully shoveled a bunch of noodles into his mouth, his excitement about Saturday night grew. "Dinner and Grandma and Grandpas? Yay!"

Aria looked over to Ezra. In a way he felt kind of distant; part of her wondered if this was because of the whole "I love you" deal earlier in the day. He looked up to meet her eyes.

"Ella also mentioned that they have a surprise for us." James jumped up, nearly spilling his bowl of soup everywhere. He hopped on the middle couch cushion in excitement.

"Daddy what is it? What... is... it?" With each word, the little boy jumped onto his dad, and then scrambled off to repeat the process. Before he could do it again, Ezra reached over and grabbed Jamie, holding him up so he couldn't attack him again. "I don't know bud; we'll have to wait until Saturday to find out."

"I'm sure whatever Grandma and Grandpa's surprise is will be great Jamie." Aria murmured, as she grabbed him from Ezra as if he was no lighter than a doll. She flattened his hair down, fixing the mess she'd caused earlier.

"Momma can we go Friday? Please, please, please?" He looked up at her, pulling the 'big blue puppy dog eyes' trick. It probably would've worked, if not for Emily taking James that night.

Aria shook her head. "No, that night you're going with Auntie Emily for a fun night. How does that sound?" James grinned, and said that it sounded awesome.

Aria looked over to Ezra, who'd be quiet for a lot of the afternoon. "Besides, you and I have a date that night."

Ezra raised an eyebrow. "Oh do we now?" Aria nodded. "Well that sounds perfect." He reached his arm over to the other end of the couch, and brought Aria in to his chest, while James sat in the middle of them. Ezra pecked her on the cheek.

James turned his head to look up at his parents, looking mildly grossed out. Ezra noticed that his expression was that of Aria's "adorable scrunchie face."

"What's wrong James?" Aria asked.

"You guys kiss lots." He stated simply, sticking out his tongue.

Ezra chuckled. "So you've said. When you're older, you kiss a girl if you love her." He said, looking at Aria intently. When Aria met his gaze, she felt as if fireworks had gone off in the room. His choice of words made her stomach flip, but the opportunity excited her. "And if she loves you, she'll kiss you back." Aria quickly leaned over and playfully kissed Ezra on the cheek, erupting with giggles.

James looked intelligently at his mother, and then pecked her on the cheek. "Love you Momma."

"Love you too, Jamie."

James hopped off the couch, leaving his parents to whatever they were getting up to. He sighed. Galloping up to the stairs to his room, James was fairly certain about one thing. _I dunno why you'd wanna kiss a girl. They have cooties. _He could hear his dad laughing downstairs. He decided that if his mom and dad kissing made them that happy, then the cooties must have been worth it. 


	20. Chapter 20

Earlier Friday night, Emily had come and picked up Jamie, planning to take him to see Finding Nemo in 3D. Aria smiled at the look of glee on her sons face when he found out that not only was he going to go and see his favourite movie for the millionth time, but now it was in _3D_, which instantly made it just that much cooler.

Aria and Ezra had enjoyed a dinner out at the Grille before returning back to Aria's house to watch a movie. Aria had changed out of the little black dress she'd worn to dinner, and was now comfortable in a pair of black leggings and a teal blue sweater. She was curled up against Ezra's side, quite comfortable. The rain pouring outside made it a perfect night to curl up and watch a film together.

While he was engrossed with the movie, Ezra was playing with Aria's hair with one hand. She smiled when she realized he wasn't aware he was doing so. Everything just felt so natural, so perfect. She knew that eventually reality would set in and they would have to go back to their lives, but for now, this was more than enough.

An explosion from the movie caught her attention. "Okay, I have to admit, The Avengers is a really good movie." She said.

Ezra turned and looked at her, a triumphant look on his face. "Told you so. You can never go wrong with a superhero movie. Although Green Lantern was pretty bad."

"Oh my god. You're totally a closet comic book fan!" She screeched, playfully slapping Ezra on the arm.

"I wouldn't say that. I used to read comics when I was younger, okay?"

She rolled her eyes. "Please. I bet if I looked hard enough I could find some comics in your apartment. They're definitely hidden somewhere."

"No, I-. You-" He stuttered. "That's beside the point. Don't act as though you don't have a guilty pleasure. There has to be something."

Aria shook her head. "Nope. I'm one hundred percent clean." She pondered for a second, thinking to make sure that she wasn't missing anything. "Okay wait; maybe I have a slight addiction to reality TV. Don't judge me! TLC is practically my life." She giggled, and the sound echoed throughout the empty house. Ezra gently stroked her face.

"It's okay. I still love you, bad television taste or not."

Aria's mouth dropped. "Hey, there has to be at least one reality show that you can't help but watch." He shook his head, saying how he had already aired out his guilty pleasure. Aria sighed. "And I still like you, even though you have a secret nerdy side."

Aria leaned her head on his shoulder, turning her attention back to the movie. Only, her attention wasn't really on the movie. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't help but pay more attention to the thoughts swirling around in her head; like when you find yourself reading the same sentence in a book over and over again. She thought back to a few days ago, when she had phoned Emily, baring her soul to the poor girl.

Under her breath, she tried out the words 'I love you.' They felt foreign on her tongue, having not used the phrase on someone besides James and the girls in longer than she'd care to admit. That brought a revelation upon itself, she'd never really loved anyone else besides Ezra. The idea seemed absurd, because she knew that even though she might have convinced herself in the past that it was love, with the feelings that she now felt for the man sitting next to her, a protective arm around her petite frame, she could never have loved anyone at all but him.

She silently laughed at herself, realizing that she was doing exactly what she'd told Emily she had wanted to avoid.

"_When though? I can't just be sitting on the couch with him, watching Finding Nemo with Jamie and just lean over and be like 'oh by the way, I'm in love with you.' That's not going to go over well."_

Of course irony had to have a say in her relationship. Here she was, sitting on the couch with Ezra, watching a movie, and she realized in that moment that she had to tell him how she felt about him.

"Ezra." She said pointedly, still staring blankly at the screen.

After she didn't respond again, he whispered in her ear. "Are you going to finish your sentence?" Aria sat there, feeling awfully nauseous; the butterflies that had found a home in her stomach flared up again, causing her to be hesitant with her confession.

Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Nothing but the sound of deafening silence. Quickly, she shook herself back to her senses. "Have you ever loved someone else?" Her question shocked her; that was certainly not what she had meant to say. She went beet red as she realized she'd gotten her thoughts mixed up with what she'd wanted to say.

_Too late. _She bit her lip, nervous for his response. The idea of him loving someone else was resonating in her brain, with a whole crop of 'what ifs?' popping up, causing the idea of telling him how she felt to retreat back into the deep cave of her conscious.

His response was almost automatic; he knew there was no thought necessary for what she had asked; the answer was already burned in his mind. Of course he hadn't loved anyone other than her. The very idea seemed preposterous to him. Even over the five years that they had been separated, he found that he was never truly able to deviate from Aria. There was a pattern in the girls he chose to go out with, as he remembered Hardy once point out.

There was always one defining characteristic about the girl that was a direct link back to Aria. Her love of writing, her style, the colour of her eyes, her expressions; (which no matter how hard Ezra tried to match with hers, they were never close enough.) her stature. He hadn't been able to get Aria out of his mind for five years.

He remembered Hardy harping on him, encouraging to 'get out there'; and even when he did, truthfully he didn't put his best effort into finding a girl. His heart wasn't in it, literally.

"No. Never anyone but you; I never even came close to having feelings as strong as I have for you with any other girl." He looked into her hazel eyes, marveling at the flecks of green that mixed into the brown perfectly. He knew that she was it for him, and even if what he and Aria had didn't work out in the end, nothing else would ever do for him, not after her.

Their love was something they had fought for with tooth and nail, and the idea of losing such a thing scared him; but he knew that being with her, and helping her raise their son was worth any risk in the world. She kissed him softly. "Why the random question?" He asked.

Aria smiled a wistful smile. "Just thinking." His look prodded for her to continue. "About us, about what I feel. About how perfect our little family is."

"I like the sounds of that." He pulled her closer to him, so that her legs draped over his. "What else is on your mind?" He whispered. This moment reminded her of one they'd shared so many years ago in his car, during Mona's birthday party. She remembered Noel Kahn, someone who she hadn't seen in years after he got a football scholarship when he left Rosewood High. A memory surfaced; one of her singing in an empty classroom during a storm much like the one that was going on outside.

She got up without an explanation, dragging Ezra into the office where along with a large bookshelf lining one wall, a piano sat beside a large bay window. Aria sat down on the bench, scooting over so Ezra could sit beside her. She ran her fingers over the ivory keys, removing a fine layer of dust that coated the top of them. Aria hadn't touched the piano in years, at least before the Jason Thing. She pushed the thought out of her mind.

Without any plan, she started playing; there wasn't a particular song in mind, she was just playing to play. The song was probably one she had learned in her early years of high school, one that she had rigorously practiced in order to practice an exam, and that was why she was able to play it by memory.

Ezra was enthralled with the beautiful song emanating from the instrument. It was a complex song, one that had many qualities about it; it was gentle and careful, but yet had an underlying edge of excitement within it. Aria managed to play the piece perfectly until she got onto a bar that she couldn't remember. Her fingers fumbled, and she giggled. "Sorry." She said quietly.

Ezra kissed her forehead. "That's okay. It was beautiful while it lasted. Any reason why you just decided to get up and play the piano? You really don't like the Avengers, do you?" He mocked.

She smiled. "No, the movie is great. Really. I just can't get my mind to stop wandering. Somehow my thoughts ended up on this." She gestured to the piano.

"Will talking about it help?"

Aria felt an eruption of butterflies in her stomach. She tenderly wrapped an arm around Ezra's neck, resting her forehead against his. "I'm thinking about us. Just everything. Our past, what's happening now, maybe what our future is going to be like. How many mistakes I've made."

Ezra shook his head furiously. "You've made no mistakes, Aria. Your choices brought us here, and I'm more than okay with that."

"I made a mistake in leaving you; it's only even _been_ you Ezra. I've never been in love with someone else." Aria took a shaky breath before continuing. "I think I've always known that, and that scares me. No matter what happens between us, I don't think that feeling will ever go away. And I don't want it to."

Before Ezra could get a word in, Aria's lips were pressed to his, fiercely battling against them. Pulling away, her lips grazed his neck, his jaw, and finally moved back up to his mouth. This kiss was different then all the others they had shared in their relationship. It was as if a light switch had been flicked on, letting electricity course through their veins. Pure passion.

Aria stood up and pulled Ezra with her, undoing the buttons on his shirt as she dragged him towards the couch. Even though it had only been a few seconds, Ezra's lips ached for hers. He locked his fingers in her hair, gently pulling her down on the couch with him, shirtless.

A small moan escaped him as Aria's weight pushed onto his own.

Aria smiled; there was the reaction she was looking for. Almost as if it was a fight, Ezra now sought the same reaction from her. He managed to tear himself away from their kiss, and began sucking on her neck, right below her ear.

_That's sure to leave a mark._

"Ezra... bedroom." Was all that escaped in a short breath.

No longer was this something she wanted, it was something that she needed; that they both needed. They wanted each other equally as badly; the fire in their veins was unavoidable.

Their boundaries had been long forgotten, lost in a river of lust.

Somehow as they got up the stairs, Ezra managed to get Aria's shirt off. Making it up the stairs tangled in one another, Ezra pushed Aria up against the wall beside her bedroom door. Aria marveled at the fact that they'd even managed to make it to the second floor. Aria felt his hands snake around her back, resting his hands on her lower back. They were so close they could feel each other's breathing. Aria was sure that if she pulled Ezra any closer to her she'd be crushed in between him and the wall.

Gasping for air, they finally separated for a split second.

The pair stood panting, their lips just millimetres away from each other. Aria looked up, catching Ezra openly staring at her. A crimson blush spread across her face and chest.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, eyeing her with concern. There was no way he wanted her to feel like this was a mistake.

She nodded, licking her lips. "I'm sure."

Ezra nodded briskly before going in for another kiss. Grasping onto each other and never breaking the kiss, Ezra pushed open the door with his back, trying to focus while Aria dealt with his belt buckle.

Her blood pumping with electricity, Aria placed a quick kiss on her boyfriends' lips, gently biting down as she pulled away. A look transpired between them; it was more than just an "I love you" look. It was a "this feels right; we're meant to be together," look. Aria smirked as she shut the door behind her.


	21. Chapter 21

Aria woke up the next morning with her head on Ezra's chest; she was able to hear his heart steadily beating and feel his chest rise and fall with every breath. There was no place on earth she could've felt safer. Ezra's eyes fluttered open a few seconds later. "Morning beautiful." He said, no louder than a whisper.

"Good morning handsome."

"Last night was..." At such and early time in the morning and without having had his coffee yet, Ezra was at a loss for words.

Aria snuggled into his chest, completely content. "Perfect." Smiling, Ezra propped himself up, bribing his girlfriend up with him, placing a kiss on her lips.

"Guess what?" She asked biting her lip coyly.

"What?"

"I kind of love you." Inside Aria felt a flurry of butterflies. To finally be able to say those words gave her a sense of immense satisfaction; she wondered to herself why it had taken her so long to admit it. The reality was that she had never really stopped loving him; she had just been too afraid to say so. Ezra just shook his head in disbelief, unable to comprehend how he'd gotten so lucky. Instead he just leaned over and kissed Aria with as much passion he could muster.

When she pulled away finally, Aria unknotted he figures from Ezra's hair. "Bed head looks sexy on you."

He scoffed. "My hair and I are at constant odds, this is how it is at its worst. Besides, you wanna know what really looks sexy on me?" He raised an eyebrow suggestively. "You."

A wide smile spread across Arias face. "You thought about that for awhile, didn't you?" Her eyes narrowed with the playful accusation. "You were just waiting for the right time to say it." She couldn't help but throw her head back in laughter.

He raised his hands in mock guilt. "Guilty as charged." Aria leaned over and pecked him on the lips.

"You're lucky you're hot."

Ezra had a sincere expression on his face. "No, I think I'm just lucky in general." Before too long the pair were engrossed with each other once more, only separating when oxygen became a priority. Aria paused for a second when she heard her phone ring.

"That's Spencer's ringtone." she said pointedly. If her friend was phoning her at nine thirty on a Saturday morning, it had to be important.

"Just ignore it." Ezra mumbled as he trailed kisses up her neck and along her jaw. The thought slipped from her mind, rushing away with every other coherent thought that had been bouncing around in her mind. _He makes a very convincing argument._

Arias fingers traced patterns on Ezra's body, outlining his abs and biceps. "Going for round two are we?"

"Mhm." he muttered, wrapping his hands around her body to pull her closer to him. This time Ezra was the one to stop when he heard a faint knocking at the front door.

"Ignore it. It's probably somebody wanting to sell me something." Aria mumbled as she placed a kiss on Ezra's lips, biting his lower one as she pulled away. She was met with the satisfaction of a frustrated groan from Ezra; whose hands were running up and down her body.

Hearing the creak of the bedroom door, they froze immediately.

"Oh my god. I am so sorry." Aria and Ezra both went beet red at the sight of Spencer standing in the doorway, covering her eyes.

Aria was thankful for the fact that she and Ezra had gotten cold in the middle of the night and thrown something on. A t-shirt was better than nothing; and Ezra was probably a lot more comfortable in sweats at the moment then just a bed sheet.

Groaning, Aria peeled herself away from Ezra. "What was so important that you had to come bursting through my doors at nine in the morning?"

"Well had you have read your texts last night, which now I understand why you didn't respond, or answered your phone, or came to the door like ten minutes ago;" Spencer took a deep breath after jumbling through her sentence. "You would understand what the big deal is." She said pushing her left hand outwards.

"Holy shit." Aria saw the gorgeous diamond ring resting on her friends' ring finger; it was very classy and simple, a plain silver band with a heart shaped diamond. In Aria's opinion, it was very Spencer and Toby.

Spencer jumped up and down. "I know!"

"Holy shit Spence! You're engaged!" The girls let out squeals of delight, hugging one another and talking animatedly. Politely, Ezra excused himself from the conversation. "I'm going to go have a shower." He stated, pecking Aria on the cheek as he went by. "And for the record, I kind of love you too." He whispered in her ear.

Before shutting the bathroom door, he snaked his head around the corner. "And congratulations Spencer." He said, flashing a boyish grin and then disappearing behind the white door.

"So you and Fitz seemed to be having some fun before I intervened." She said, one eyebrow raised in a classic Spencer Hastings expression.

"Um, yeah. He stayed over last night." Aria said mysteriously, tugging the oversized shirt she'd borrowed from Ezra down a bit. She could hear Ezra twist the shower tap in the bathroom.

Spencer cocked her head to the side, giving Aria the 'you'll tell me everything when you're boyfriend isn't ten feet away and I know you'd rather be with him than talking with me right now' look. "Toby and I are having everyone over this afternoon to celebrate. You and Ezra can bring Jamie if you want." She said, instead of demanding details.

Aria nodded enthusiastically, explaining how they'd head over to Byron and Ella's afterwards. Spencer was heading out before deciding to throw one last thing in. "You know you might wanna hop in the shower with him. You smell like sex Aria." She winked and closed the door behind her.

Aria's mouth dropped. "Shut up!" She yelled through the wooden barrier.

She could hear Spencer running down the hallway. "You know you were going to do it anyways after I left, just admit it!" Aria rolled her eyes, but had to concede that Spencer was right. She was always right.

Aria went into the bathroom and shut the door behind her, making sure to switch the lock on. "We really need to remember to lock our doors from now on." Ezra chuckled.

"Definitely."

Aria sipped on her glass of water, watching her friends interact. She was so happy that her friends had accepted Ezra so quickly; it was as if they'd all been friends for a lifetime. Aria smiled while listening to Ezra and Toby's discussion about literature; the pair had bonded over a love of great books and an interest in cars.

"They totally have a bromance going on." Hanna said, slamming down onto the couch in the Hastings/Cavanaugh living room. "Before you know it the engagement will be called off because of these two!"

Aria laughed. "What does that leave Spencer and I with? Our pillows to cuddle with?"

Hanna shrugged. "You two can cuddle each other." Hanna stated blatantly, popping a tortilla chip with salsa into her mouth. She was trying to avoid the other half of the room, which had a Caleb and Emily catch up session going on, seeing as he'd missed her welcome back dinner. Before the party Hanna had been texting Aria, freaking out about Caleb coming, seeing as they hadn't really talked since she rejected his proposal.

"I have to substitute a pillow for this?" Spencer said playfully, poking Toby's rock hard stomach. "I'd make that trade any day. It's like lying on a rock." The entire group cracked up laughing; even Emily and Caleb who had decided to join the conversation.

"Hey, you weren't complaining last night when it was thundering like crazy out." He said, his blue eyes sparkling devilishly. Spencer's cheeks went a rosy pink.

"Aw, that's really cute Spence, thunderstorm cuddling is the best!" Hanna said gleefully, taking a sip of her red wine.

Emily laughed. "Yeah. 'Cuddling'. Spence you just got engaged, don't try and feign innocence with us." To see Spencer Hastings off guard was a rare occasion, and the girls were going to take very moment that they could and run with it. Unfortunately being a Hastings resulted in having a natural quick wit.

"I wasn't the only one who wasn't being so innocent last night." Spencer said, looking at Aria pointedly. If one half of Sparia was going down, so was the other.

A shrill squeal that was probably not far off from being able to shatter a glass came from Hanna, and a less so ear piercing shriek came from Emily. Aria looked to her boyfriend and he could see the discomfort in her eyes.

Still, she had grown accustomed to the constant teasing from her best friends throughout the years, and was prepared to come back with her own retort before Hanna butted in.

"So Ar, was it as good as you remember?"

Aria's eyes widened, and her jaw nearly hit the floor. "Hanna! There is a child present." Up until he had heard shrieks coming from his aunts, James had preoccupied himself by playing with a hot wheels track on Spencer's kitchen island.

Hanna scoffed. "He doesn't know what I mean."

Aria tossed a chip at Hanna. "Keep that in your mouth before blurting every secret I've ever told you out."

"Jamie!" Ezra called. James scurried over and wedged his way in between his dad and uncle. "Buddy you're going to act as a barrier so your mom and aunts don't kill each other. Okay?" The little boy looked confused, but nodded anyways.

"So Jamie, how was your sleep over with Aunty Em?" Toby asked, ruffling James hair.

James jumped up in excitement. "Awesome! We saw Nemo in 3D and then had ice cream!" Aria smiled at her son. She was so lucky to have so many people in James' life who cared about him as much as her friends did. It was something she'd never take for granted; he was probably the most loved little boy in the world.

That might have been an exaggeration, but it sure seemed like it.

"Auntie Spencer, can I see your ring?" Spencer held out her hand while James looked at the glimmering ring with immense curiosity. "It's very pretty."

Spencer looked lovingly at Toby. "I know."

His tiny eyebrows furrowed in thought. "So if you wanna marry someone you give 'em a ring?"

Caleb sat on the arm of the couch that Ezra, Toby and James had managed to squeeze onto. Aria noticed he looked directly at Hanna. "Yep. And then you hope they say yes."

Jamie looked from Spencer's hand to his parents; just for a second, his eyebrows furrowed. No one seemed to notice, and a second later he was back to playing with his cars.

For the rest of the afternoon Hanna remained rather quiet, bothered by Caleb's accusation. Just before Aria was planning to leave, Hanna approached her. "Aria come with me upstairs." The girls made their way to the bathroom, which was universally known as the place girls go to talk.

"Caleb is killing me. I fucked up so bad Aria, it took everything for me not to get up and leave when he made that jab at me earlier today." She said, biting her lip to keep the tears from escaping. Aria wrapped her arms around Hanna.

"It's going to be okay, Han. You guys will figure it out, okay? Just go talk to him."

Hanna shook her head. "I don't know if I can handle that."

Aria took a step back, leaning against the sink. "I know that Caleb loves you, and that you love him. Obviously he's hurting right now, and the only person that will be able to fix that is you, so you need to go and talk to him. Things can't go forward until you take the first step." She said gently.

Hanna said she understood, then after fixing the tiny smudges of mascara, left to go and pursue Caleb. Aria washed her hands, eager to get rid of the residue from the food she'd been picking and munching on for the majority of the afternoon.

She'd tried to save room for dinner at her parents, which she had volunteered to help make with her mom, leaving Ezra and Byron alone to hopefully smooth things out a little. If they were going to bond over anything, it would be them watching the little four and a half year old boy they both loved.

Aria took one last look in the mirror before flicking off the bathroom light and stepping out into the hallway. She was met with the resistance of an arm, which her by the waist and pulled her back into the bathroom.

She couldn't help but giggle as she felt the person lift her up onto the bathroom counter. "Ezra stop!" She hissed. "Spencer's going to kill me if she finds us in here." In the dark she felt his lips press against hers.

"Well she's not going to find us." He said huskily, pushing the door closed. Aria gasped as she felt him sucking on her neck. She leaned her head back involuntarily, silently telling him to proceed. She unconsciously wrapped her fingers in his hair, tugging a little harder than necessary.

"Hold on hold on. Our son is downstairs." She spit out. She felt Ezra pull away, and then felt his breath on her face.

"What he doesn't know won't hurt him." Ezra fiercely pressed his lips to Aria's, slipping his tongue into her mouth. Aria had lost all her resistance at this point, giving in and letting all her inhibitions melt away. She wrapped her legs around his waist. His hand was slowly making its way up her bare thigh, reaching the hem of her dress.

Ezra let out a cry of pain when the door hit him in the arm. "Spencer! I found them!" Emily screamed, flicking the light on. "Shit, I owe Spence ten bucks now, thanks guys." She said, rolling her eyes. Aria and Ezra sat there, a little horrified at what had just transpired.

Emily turned around before she went down the stairs. "You two might want to cool down a bit before you come downstairs. There is a little boy who would prefer to remain ignorant to his parents' activities behind closed doors."

Aria hopped down off the counter. "And that is coming from the girl who was making sexual innuendos earlier this afternoon."

A few minutes later, Aria and Ezra walked down the stairs, the feeling very similar to the walk of shame. Naturally, they were met by the applause of Emily, Hanna, Caleb, Spencer, Toby and even their own son. Aria covered her face in embarrassment, while Ezra wrapped an arm protectively around her. "Thanks guys."

James ran up to his parents, waving a five dollar bill in the air. "Uncle Caleb gave me five bucks for clapping!" He exclaimed excitedly. Ezra shot a look at Caleb. "Really, bribing my son to embarrass me? Good job." Everyone burst out laughing.

The trio said their goodbyes, still in stitches. Buckling James into his car seat, Aria noticed the five dollars sitting in his lap. "What are you going to do with that, Little Man?" She asked.

He looked at it, considering all of the possibilities; candy, toys, stickers or a number of other options appealed to the little boy. "I dunno. I'm gonna show Grandma and Grandpa it." He smiled ear to ear. "And they have a surprise! Let's go Momma!"

She shut the back door and climbed in the passenger's seat, looking over to Ezra. "Well, we have an anxious son who wants to see his surprise. Let's go."


	22. Chapter 22

"Hi Mom!" Aria said as she leaned over James to give Ella a hug. "Hi Dad!" Again leaning over James who was now hugging Ella's torso, she placed a kiss on her dad's cheek. Peeling away and taking a step into the foyer, she watched as Ezra greeted Ella and shook Byron's hand.

"Grandpa, look!" James shouted excitedly as he waved the five dollar bill in the air. "I got this today from Uncle Caleb! I'm rich!" Byron chuckled and assured the little boy that he was practically a millionaire.

Aria watched proudly as James asked his grandparents how they were doing. She couldn't help but feel happy with herself for how he was growing up to be such a polite boy. He hadn't stopped talking about the surprise that he was looking forward to so badly, but instead of asking for it like any other four year old would, he made sure that the people that he loved were doing well.

Aria felt Ezra entwine his fingers with hers. She marvelled at how even now such a simple action could cause her stomach to twist and turn. The pair sat down on the couch in the living room as James went on and told Ella and Byron about how he was doing in school. Ella and Byron sat down opposite the couch, each on a chair. James climbed into Ella's lap, looking quite content with his money.

"So what's new with you two?" Ezra asked them politely.

Byron explained how he had gotten a promotion at Hollis, moving him up higher in the English department. Aria noticed how today he was being more civil towards Ezra, and not treating him as if he was someone who he had to just tolerate.

"So, with this promotion came a small bonus. Ella and I are going to be going on a cruise this winter, and we happened to spring on two things for you guys as well."

"Byron, you really didn't have to." Aria said shaking her head.

"I'm allowed to spoil my daughter and her family, alright?" He said, shifting his gaze from Aria and Ezra to his grandson. "Especially when my favourite grandson is going to be a millionaire." He said, pointing to the bill.

James shot up excitedly. "Is this the surprise?" He asked eagerly, looking absolutely delighted.

Ella nodded. She stood up off the chair and walked over to the door that led to the backyard. Aria let James go out first, seeing as the waiting was killing him. Her curiosity peaked when a high pitched squeal of delight came from her son.

She raced out herself, to see Mike sitting in the backyard, playing with a tiny creature.

"Mike!" She ran to her little brother, who she hadn't seen in at least a year. They had texted and skyped often, but it was never the same as being face to face. This must have been her surprise, seeing as her parents probably paid for the train ticket from New York to Rosewood.

After overcoming his depression in high school, Mike decided that he wanted to become a guidance counsellor and help kids get over the same thing he had gone through. Even with her parents being able to afford university, it was never a really easy time financially. Byron and Ella wanted to make sure their children could take care of themselves, without being totally dependent on them. The train ticket must have meant the world to Mike, being much cheaper than gas money that it would have cost him to drive home.

"Hey big sister!" He said as she threw her arms around him. "How's life?" He asked as he spun her around like she was a doll.

Before she could answer, she was interrupted by James' giggles. "Momma, a puppy, a puppy! I have a puppy!" James shouted. Down on the ground, James was pinned down by tiny golden furred puppy who seemed intent on licking every square inch of James' face. "Daddy look! Isn't he cute?"

At 'daddy', Mike's eyebrows raised in surprise. Aria blushed, realizing that the last time she'd talked to him was in the summer. He was completely in the dark about the whole Ezra situation. Ezra jogged down from the back porch, crouching down to pet the new addition of the family. With the distraction of a new person to lick, the puppy let James up.

"Is he really mine?" James asked Ella and Byron, who were smiling happily from the back porch, watching on as the group enjoyed their presents.

"Yes, he's all yours little man." Ella said.

James ran up the steps, nearly tripping over his own feet as he latched onto his grandparents in a bear hug, or at least as big of a hug that a particularly small four year old could muster.

While James continued to thank Ella and Byron for his new puppy, who he was now referring to as Tyrannosaurus Rex, after the dinosaur they had been learning about in class. Aria could hear his declaration that his name would be Rex for short.

"Good to see you, Mike." Ezra said politely, extending his hand.

"You too man. Sorry about the last time, you know, when I punched you in the face?" Mike said with an apologetic smile. He never really apologized to Ezra for the whole incident. Aria knew he felt remorseful, but he wanted Ezra to hear it from his own mouth.

Ezra dismissed his apology, stating that there were no hard feelings. The three stood quietly for a few minutes, watching James run around with the puppy while it jumped alongside him, the pair racing around the yard like there was no tomorrow.

"Look how fast he is momma!" He squealed before coming to a halt. The little boy bent over and gave the dog a hug, ecstatic with his new friend.

"So, how did this come about?" Mike said, meaning the two of them. Aria sighed, and launched into her long tale of how they had gotten back together, all because of a box of Cheerios. Mike couldn't help but smile as the story came to a conclusion. He knew that being without Ezra had been hard on Aria, even when she was too stubborn to admit that that she needed him. He thought of other guys she had been with, and none of them had seemed _right._ Especially the last one, boy was that ever messy. Just the thought brought up a bitter taste; he'd never liked the guy anyways.

"Listen, mom told me that you two are cooking dinner for us tonight, and I suggest you start before Dad starts complaining. I'll watch the little guy." He said, gesturing towards James.

Aria nodded, stating that they'd catch up more over dinner. Mike doted on his nephew like the girls did; James had a magnetic quality about him, people couldn't help but fall in love with his little boy charm; she had yet met a person who had been able to resist his blue eyes when he asked to play with them.

"So, what are we cooking tonight?" Ezra asked as he snaked an arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him. The air was becoming chillier each day; fall was beginning to fade into winter. October would be coming the next week, and that reminded Aria that she needed to go shopping with the girls for some new fall pieces. The warmth of her boyfriend felt nice as they walked inside.

"Well," Aria opened the fridge, inspecting the items inside. "I'd told my mom that we'd make some alfredo and a salad; I brought the ingredients over earlier this week." While cooking had never been his strong suit, Ezra was pretty confident that if he left the pasta up to Aria, he could handle the salad by himself. Aria grabbed the ingredients and laid them out on the counter, deciding what to start with first.

She handed all the salad components over to Ezra, fully aware that letting him near the alfredo sauce might result in them just ordering take out.

She flashed a quick smile at him before getting to work. She threw some mushrooms and butter into the sauce pan, intending to slightly cook them before adding them into the sauce later. While she waited for them to cook, she sliced an onion up into rings and threw them into the mixture as well.

She couldn't avoid watching Ezra as he ripped lettuce off the head and threw it into a strainer. Sure he hadn't killed them after making pasta, but she wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. When he caught her staring, he couldn't help but poke fun at her.

"I'm not completely incapable, you know. You don't need to worry."

"I know you're not incapable, but you're not exactly a master chef, either." She said, smiling mischievously. He playfully hip checked her on his way to the sink, smirking as he passed by.

She threw the half cooked vegetables into a bowl and started on the sauce and boiling the pasta. Ezra finished with the lettuce, drying it in a tea towel, before throwing it into a bowl. He started chopping the tomatoes and cucumbers to throw in the green mass of leaves. He'd barely finished slicing up his first tomato before Ella asked if she could cut in.

"Yeah, sure." He wiped his hands off before on a tea towel before going to go and join Byron in the living room.

Ella picked up the knife, marvelling at how the first tomato had been butchered by Ezra. "I don't think he realizes that he was holding the knife upside down." Her remark caused the pair of women to erupt into laughter. "Anyways, I figured we could have some girl talk." Aria smiled. There was nothing she loved more than having a down to earth conversation with her mother; sometimes she needed it, some days she just enjoyed having the relationship that they did that allowed them to talk about anything.

Meanwhile, Ezra went into the living room, where he found Byron drinking a scotch, looking out the window, watching his grandson play. "Can I offer you a drink?" He asked.

Ezra kindly accepted, staring out the window, overjoyed with his son's reaction to the kind gift. "Thank you, Byron. You have no idea how badly he's been wanting a puppy." Unfortunately, this meant he and Aria were now out of a Christmas present idea.

"It's not problem, Ezra. Ella mentioned how he brought it up once or twice while he spent the day at school with you guys." As Ezra took a sip of his scotch, he couldn't help but wonder if it was poisoned; Byron was being extremely civil towards him, much more than normal. The man seemed calm, there was no edge to his words or aggravated glint in his eye. "I talked to Ella about a couple of things, and I came to realize that no matter what I feel, I can't stop you from being with Aria." He explained.

Ezra went to step in to defend himself, but Byron cut him off.

"Nor do I want you to stop being with her." He took a huge breath, sucking in his pride. "I know you're good for her, Ezra. I can see it, even in these past couple minutes. So I just want to know that I have nothing against you, and I'm sorry for any prejudices I held against you before." He swirled his drink around in the glass, trying to avoid Ezra's gaze.

"Thank you Byron. I love her so much, and your approval means a lot." Ezra held his drink up in friendship. The pair downed the rest of their drink before returning to idle chit chat as they walked back to the kitchen, where Ella and Aria were talking about the new puppy.

"So anyways, one of Byron's co workers dog had a litter of puppies, and we thought why not? The dog will be the perfect size, he's a Golden Cocker Retriever, they never grown much bigger than a puppy, but they're not purse dogs so Ezra doesn't have to suck up his man-pride when taking Rex for a walk." Ella laughed. "You know Aria, I always wanted to get a dog when you were younger, but Byron never wanted to have to take the tiny dog I wanted for walks. Something about having to "go fight a bear afterwards to get his man-card back."

Aria gasped. "So you're the reason Santa never brought me a puppy when I asked for one every year!"

Byron nodded. "Sorry sweetie, hopefully this will make up for it." Just hearing happy noises from James was enough to know that it was made up for, and even more.

After another few minutes of small talk, the adults called James and Mike in for dinner. It took a few minutes, but Mike came in carrying James in one arm, and Tyrannosaurus Rex in the other, both were squirming to escape his grasp.

"Neither of them wanted to come inside." He explained, placing the new best friends on the ground.

Aria looked on in horror as she saw the dirt that had found its way into James newly washed shirt and the smudged that were streaked across his face. She couldn't say anything, however, as Rex and Jamie looked up at her, putting the puppy dog look into full force. Literally. So she grabbed a napkin and wiped James' face off and told him to go take a seat at the table.

The five adults joined a few seconds later, the food in tow. The large bowls of salad and alfredo were placed on the table, along with a platter of bread.

"So Mike, how's your last year of university?" Aria asked as she loaded some of the leafy greens onto her plate.

"Amazing, actually. I'm excited to be finished with school for once. Not to mention that I've met a girl." It seemed that it wasn't only Aria who was surprised to hear the news. Byron and Ella reacted with interest as well, but prying duties were solely left to Aria, being the big sister.

"What's her name? What's she like?" Aria was going to have a bunch of other questions tumble out of her mouth, but Mike stopped her before their family dinner turned into a game of twenty questions about Mike's new girlfriend.

"Her name is Sara, I met her when at the beginning of this year. She's a psychology major." Aria was extremely dissatisfied with the lack of information. Mike rolled his eyes. "She's blonde, blue eyes, about five foot six, and has a guilty pleasure for watching Honey Boo Boo. Not to mention that's she's incredibly smart and plays field hockey." He said in a monotone.

"Much better." Aria said happily. "I'll have to meet her sometime."

Mike agreed before going back to poking at his pasta.

Aria noticed that so far James had been rather quiet; normally he was a chatterbox at his grandparents'. She craned her head around the end of the table, to see James petting Rex, happily looking at the tiny puppy.

"Sweetie, you can't pet Rex at the table, otherwise he'll want to eat your food."

James' mouth formed an o shape. "All of it?"

"Mhmm."

He took his hand away from the dog and looked down. "I'm sorry Rex, but this food is for me, not you." He stated plainly, before turning his attention to his small portion of pasta and salad. "Uncle Mike, do you wanna play soccer with me after dinner?" He asked, picking out the tomatoes of his salad and popping them in his mouth.

"Sure bud. Do your mom and dad want to play too?" He looked at Aria and Ezra. "I'm sure you and I can beat them." Aria was originally going to say no and enjoy a drink on the back porch, but now that the challenge was posed, she couldn't back down, and Mike knew that.

"You're so on, little bro."

"I'm in." Ezra said, finishing the last little bit of bread he had been munching on.

James smiled happily. "You and Daddy are going dowwwwwn Momma!"

Great, now she was receiving trash talk from her four and a half year old son. This was no longer a matter of fun; she had to hold up her honour.

"Your father and I will be score keepers." Ella said, taking a sip of her wine.

James got up and walked over to his grandma, sitting on her lap and whispering in her ear. He then shuffled through his pockets, searching for something. He took the five dollar bill out and placed it on the table.

"How's that?"

Ezra nearly spit his pasta out he was laughing so hard. Had his son just tried to bribe Ella? The idea was too absurd, but sure enough, he smiled proudly, thinking he was brilliant for his idea.

"Tell you what Jamie," Ella said, tucking the bill back into his pocket. "You keep that, and I'll see what I can do, just because you're my grandson, and because I really want to see your mom and dad lose."

Content, he sat back down at his seat and finished his meal.

Aria rested her hand on Ezra's thigh, leaning over to his ear. "I hope you know we're going to lose. I don't have an athletic bone in my body." Ezra laughed, wiping his face with a napkin. "Me neither, sweetheart."

Oh well. At least they were going to have some fun while doing it. Cheating was always an option, right?

After dinner while Ezra, Aria, Byron, Ella and Mike were cleaning up, James was outside with Rex preparing goal posts in the backyard. The dishes were done quickly, and leftovers were packed away in a matter of minutes.

Even so, they weren't quick enough for James. "Come on momma! You and daddy hafta hurry up so you can lose!" He said, tapping on the glass door.

Aria pulled her hair up, thankful that she had decided to change into jeans instead of wearing the dress that she had at Spencer's. She pulled Ezra by the hand and waltzed out to the backyard, grabbing the bright green soccer ball off the ground. She kicked it lightly towards Ezra, who deflected it with the side of his foot, looking rather ungraceful while doing so.

The only thing he was good at in soccer was running up with the ball. As kids, he and his brother Wesley played soccer, but Ezra dropped it as soon as he could, tired of being the worst kid on the team. He much preferred books to the dirt and grime of fighting over a ball with a bunch of other kids.

Still, he was much better than Aria who's only defence seemed to be kicking people in the shins as they tried to dribble the ball around her. Ella and Byron declared that practice time was over, and so because there was some bias towards James and his adorableness, Ella said that he and Mike start with the ball.

"Stay in net." Ezra told Aria. Her shin kicking talents might be a little less useful than she thought.

Mike stayed in the make shift net on the other side, while James slowly brought up the ball, trying to balance kicking the ball and getting Tyrannosaurus Rex to stop trying to bite the ball with his tiny puppy teeth. Knowing that he couldn't just take the ball away from James, which would clearly be taking advantage of his size, he did the next best thing. He swooped down and picked Jamie up, carrying him like a football to the goal while kicking the football. Not like that was taking advantage or anything.

"Daddy's cheating! Daddy's cheating!" He screamed through his giggles. In the end, it didn't matter because Ezra's effort was wasted as Mike easily stopped the ball as it sailed over to the left side of the net.

Instead, Mike brought up the ball, rushing full force at Aria. He reared his foot back, causing Aria to flinch and scream like a little girl, not wanting to get a ball to the face. Stopping his foot at the last second, he gently kicked the ball in, allowing it to just roll by Aria's leg.

James ran across the back yard, high fiving his uncle.

Ezra jogged back to his girlfriend. "You can't stop the ball if your eyes are closed." He said, chuckling.

"You can't score if you're carrying a thrashing four year old in your arms." She retorted.

Ezra took this as a challenge. He brought up the ball, managing to manoeuvre it around both James and Rex, which was no easy task. He brought his foot back, and managed to shoot it just over Mike's hand.

"One – one!" Ella shouted from the porch.

Mike handed the ball to James, whispering something in his ear. The little boy nodded, and ran full speed up the tiny makeshift field. Aria and Ezra had switched, and Aria stood uncomfortable as James rushed up the grass, already predicting her impending failure.

Just as she had suspected, James had managed to kick the ball through her legs, and shot it to the left corner of the net; Ezra dived, but couldn't seem to get there in time. Aria smiled as James ran up the field, screaming 'goal'! She looked at Ezra who gave her a wink.

"James and Mike are the winners!" Ella shouted from the porch.

Byron walked down to the backyard, and ruffled James' already messed up hair. "Nice shot bud."

James beamed. "Thanks grandpa!"

He walked over to Aria and Ezra. "Good game." He smiled innocently.

"Good game buddy." They said.

Tired from their intense game of family soccer, they retreated back inside, where the rest of the night was spent over a few drinks and many rounds of 'who can spoil the new puppy the most'. And Aria could honestly say it was one of her favourite family dinners she'd ever had.


	23. Chapter 23

Aria looked outside the window after hearing James shrill screech emanate from the front yard. She smiled when she saw a handful of leaves fly into the air, before landing gracefully on the little boy's mop of chestnut hair.

Ezra was doubled over laughing as James flailed in the pile that they had spent most of the day raking. Earlier that day, James had proudly declared that he and his daddy were going to rake the leaves together and keep Rex with them while Aria got things done around the house.

She looked over to the clock above the over in the kitchen to see that it was nearly three o clock; they'd been raking leaves for over three hours already and James squeals of delight had not stopped.

Ezra had volunteered to keep James occupied for the day while Aria scrapbooked and did some miscellaneous chores. Ella had shown her photo albums from when Aria and Mike were little one time at dinner, and Aria had been transfixed on the idea ever since.

So far she'd made pages for the past year where Ezra had been involved in James' life; there was Jamie's first day of school, trips to the farm to grab a pumpkin for Halloween, and his first Halloween choosing his own costume.

Aria smiled as she ran her fingers over the edge of the photos, looking at her son all dressed up in a blue race car jumpsuit. He'd chosen to be a race car driver, true to his love for cars and just about anything with wheels.

Hanna, Spencer, Emily, Toby, Ezra and Aria had taken James and his two friends Matt and Evan out trick or treating; somehow the little kids had managed to last longer than the adults. Nearly an hour and a half of going house to house and it was Hanna and Emily whining to go back.

While the girls had bundled up to face the cold night, Ezra and Toby had comically dressed up, ironically as each other. Aria and Spencer had each gotten a picture with the others' boyfriend. Aria was cuddling up to a sweater vest wearing Toby, and Spencer had a picture of her kissing a fake ab-ed, spiky haired Ezra on the cheek.

After dropping Matt and Evan off at home, the gang went to Aria's to help James sort through his candy, which mostly involved them picking at the assortment while James wasn't watching. Hanna was the worst offender, managing to sneak all of the coffee crisps herself. When James caught her, he shrugged and said it wasn't a problem, stating that he much preferred kit kats and that his Auntie Nan could take all of the coffee crisps she wanted.

Even after a month, Hanna and Caleb hadn't patched things up. Though they weren't at each other's throats, they weren't back to the happy couple that they used to be. Hanna described it more as "having a male roommate without the whole sex thing."

The few times Aria had been to Hanna's in the past month if Caleb was around the pair avoided each other like the plague. She got the sense that interaction only happened when it was absolutely necessary; a few words about grocery shopping or who got the TV at what time, (Hanna refused to miss Keeping Up With the Kardashians) or an awkward bump against each other when trying to get breakfast ready.

On the other hand, Spencer and Toby were going stronger than ever, if that was possible. After announcing their engagement to the whole Hastings and Cavanaugh families, the pair had finally been able to settle down; the constant bombardment of phone calls had drummed down. Apparently it had taken at least four hour long conversations with Spencer's nana to convince her that no, she was not pulling a Melissa and was not pregnant, but still the elderly lady refused to believe it.

So far nothing solid had been decided, but Spencer and Toby were thinking of a spring wedding, possibly in May or even early June.

Aria packed up all the spare pictures she hadn't used and brushed all of the tiny slivers of paper into the garbage before heading upstairs to put the scrapbook away. While her room was relatively clean, it was evident that she wasn't the only inhabitant.

Miscellaneous items belonging to Ezra were strewn throughout the room; a sweater, a bottle of cologne, a briefcase that was tipped over and had papers flowing out of it. While they weren't really moved in together officially, it felt like they were. Ezra only spent a night in his apartment once in a while, and those nights never seemed to end for Aria. She'd grown accustomed to falling asleep at his side, and the empty side of the bed brought her no comfort on the nights she had to spend alone.

Just as she finished making the bed, a ringing came from one of Ezra's Hollis sweaters that were draped across a chair in the corner of the room. She'd seen him put it on that morning before switching to a light jacket because of the crisp winter air. Digging it out of the front pocket, Aria saw an unfamiliar number on the screen, but she answered the call anyways.

"Hello?"

"Who is this?" A woman on the other line questioned, her voice sounding older and structured. "Could I speak to Ezra please?"

Aria threw the sweater on the bed and hopped down the stairs to the front lawn. "Sure, may I ask who's calling?"

"Dianne Fitzgerald, his mother."

Ezra's mom. Aria's lips formed into a small, surprised 'o' shape before she was snapped back to reality by James tugging on her jean leg. "Yeah, sure, here he is." Aria handed the phone to Ezra, mouthing the words 'your mom'. Ezra's face paled, and he blinked a couple of times before greeting his mom. As he walked up the front porch and into the house, Aria picked James up, seeing as that was what he'd been after earlier.

"Momma, me and Daddy made a pile of leaves and then Rex and I played in them and now he's all dirty. We gotta give him a bath." Aria smiled and wiped a smudge of dirt off of Jamie's cheek with her thumb.

"We just gave him a bath three days ago!" And what a chaotic experience that had been. It turned out that Tyrannosaurus Rex was as fond as baths about as much as Aria was height restrictions at amusement parks.

After Ezra had finally managed to get the dog in the tub, he refused to sit still. Rex was constantly running around in the tub, shaking out his fur and trying to jump out. After a half hour in the water they'd finally managed to get the puppy clean. Ezra looked like he'd gone swimming, he was soaked from the chest up, and Aria couldn't help but laugh every time he fake glowered at her around the house for being the one to deem him responsible for washing the dog.

"So does that mean I don't need baths?" James asked as Aria set him down, patting Rex while the puppy rubbed himself against Aria's legs.

"Little boys are different than little puppies, buddy. You definitely need baths, sweetie." Aria chuckled. James looked rather disgruntled for a four year old, and went off to roll around in the pile of leaves that he and Ezra had transported to the ditch. Happily, Rex bounded after his youngest owner, tail wagging and tongue flapping as he jumped into the leaves as well, his tiny barks sounding throughout the neighborhood.

The door closing shut revealed an anxious looking Ezra walking down the stairs, running a hand through his messy hair before planting himself on the last step. Aria sat down beside him, resting her hand on his knee. "So... your mom."

While they'd managed to conquer Mount Byron and Ella, the pair hadn't even talked about Ezra's parents. Aria wasn't even sure of the last time Ezra had mentioned talking to them. From what she remembered, (And there wasn't a lot) Ezra's mother lived in New York, and was a socialite. Ezra's father had been out of the picture for a long time, but he had been a CEO when the Fitzgerald brothers were growing up_._ After the divorce, Dianne Fitzgerald had gotten a large sum of the money, making the household a bit more well off than most.

Wesley, Ezra's brother, had gotten his ticket to law school completely paid for by the Fitzgerald's. Ezra, on the other hand had to make do with what he had. Supposedly being a teacher wasn't 'good for the family name' in the Fitzgerald household, so, Ezra dropped the last name and only talked to his mother on occasion. Even the relationship with his brother was strained to the extreme.

"My mom," Ezra said, rubbing his eyes with his hands. "Has invited us for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday." Aria's mind reeled, Thursday; they were having brunch at the Montgomery household and then the rest of the night had been free for the taking, so unfortunately they were free.

"Well if we're going to my parents at eleven, then we could make it if we left at two-ish. Your mom lives in New York, right? It'll be a time crunch but I think it's possible."

The look on Ezra's face took her by surprise. It was somewhere in between the levels of bewilderment and looking at Aria like she'd just said something completely crazy. Either way, neither was good.

"You can't be considering this. I mean, my mom doesn't even know about us. Or James. I'm not sure I can just show up and introduce her to my son, the one that even I had no clue about. You've seen how well my family handles things that are... out of the norm."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" The breeze picked up, blowing Aria's curls into her face, completely messing up the work she had put in earlier that morning. Thankfully, Ezra came to the rescue and brushed the strands of hair away.

"Nothing, just that my family is crazy and I'd like to keep the two people that I love most in the world out of it."

James was in his own world, preoccupied with trying to cover Rex in leaves. Somehow Aria didn't think that getting a puppy buried in leaves would be easy. "If you want to go, we should go, Ezra. When was the last time you even talked to your mom?"

Embarrassingly enough, Ezra had no idea. To say that his family was on bad terms was an understatement, and even the 'family dinners' that happened a couple times a year were high strung and fake. Each 'pass the potatoes' piled onto the ever increasing amount of fake conversations, smiles and laughs that took place.

Things hadn't been the same ever since his dad left, and things only got worse after Ezra had followed in his footsteps. But he knew that avoiding his family forever wasn't an option. If he didn't see them sooner or later, he had a feeling that he and Aria would be playing house to the rest of the Fitz family.

"Well it was long enough ago that she has no idea about you, well actually since you picked up the phone she probably has some idea that there's a woman in my life. It's James I'm worried about." He'd seen how the household had been with him as a child, and there was no way in hell Ezra was letting his son get within fifty feet of that house.

His mother had this way of making people feel so inferior, and he resolved that he wasn't letting that toxic influence around James.

"But we can't just not take him, it's a holiday. I don't know Aria... This is my family, and I have firsthand experience with their ability to destroy things with a touch."

Without even thinking, Aria laced her fingers with Ezra's.

"And I've had firsthand experience with our family being able to heal. Maybe it'll balance out." She squeezed his hand and leaned her head on his shoulder. "Also if we go I think we need to find someone to watch Rex. I'm not sure if your family will be able to handle the news of a girlfriend, son and a hyperactive puppy all at once." She giggled.

Truthfully, the knowledge that in a few days she would be meeting Ezra's mother for the first time terrified Aria. She'd always heard stories of mean mother in laws, but she felt that this would be scary mother-in-law on a whole other level.

She and Ezra decided to see if Spencer and Toby could take Rex for the afternoon. Ever since they brought the puppy home, Spencer had fallen in love with the golden haired creature.

Aria was pretty sure Spencer only came over so she could have Rex in her arms while she and Aria chatted. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Rex was the most spoiled dog in existence; he was constantly fawned over and no matter how much everyone denied it, once in a while someone snuck him scraps from after dinner.

Aria was the worst offender; she was a serious suck for the deep brown eyes of the newest addition. Ezra constantly made fun of her when she tried to feign innocence, but he always saw right through her. Silently she wondered to herself how he could turn out so opposite from his family.

"What will we do about James?" She asked.

Ezra let out a long breath. "I'm not sure, but he has to come with us. Maybe I'll give Wes a call and give him a heads up. At least then he'll be one less person we have to worry about. Normally he's cool, it's just with our mom in the picture things get... tense." Ezra pulled up his brother on his phone and shot him a quick text.

**Call me ASAP. Gotta tell you something important. – Ezra**

Aria soothingly ran her hand up and down Ezra's back. "I'm sure Jamie will be fine, there's not a person he hasn't won over with his Fitz charm. I'm sure that'll count for something."

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching their son play, as content as ever. For the second time that day, Ezra's phone rang, and immediately he picked up, seeing the familiar name light up the screen.

"Hello Wes."


	24. Chapter 24

"Hello, Wes." Ezra said as he got up and walked inside, leaving Aria and Jamie alone is peace as he dove into what was sure to be an interesting conversation with his brother.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of a frantic text and phone call from my older brother?" Ezra could hear the smug tone in his voice. "Did mom give you the details about Thanksgiving? I'm sure it's going to be a great family get together, all calm and holiday spirited." Wesley snorted. "Not."

It was true, the Fitz family dinners had a tradition of someone getting so offended they left before dessert.

Last year it was Ezra's aunt Megan, whom Dianne had called out on some scandal that had gone down in high school. After that all hell had broken loose. Family members were throwing accusations at each other like the apocalypse was on the horizon. As far as Ezra knew, Aunt Megan hadn't talked to the Fitzgerald family in over a year.

That was precisely what Ezra wanted to avoid, because for all he knew it could be Aria who was the one storming out of the house.

"Here's the thing Wes... Things can't be like that this year. I'm bringing my girlfriend." The words came out rushed, and in his haste Ezra had forgotten the most important factor in the equation, James.

On the other end, Ezra could hear Wesley's tone perk up. While the two weren't as close as they had been before the whole 'Ezra smearing the family name' fiasco, there were small instances when their brotherly bond returned in full force. How long it lasted was always a mystery.

"I don't really want her around mom. Especially on a holiday. We both know that's a recipe for disaster."

Wesley chuckled.

"Tell me about it. Anyways, who's the girl? Cause after the whole Aria meltdown you've been in a funk, bro. I mean I know you thought she was 'the one' and all, but you have to move on."

After Aria had left him heartbroken, he'd gone and seen his brother for the weekend while he was at university and told him everything. After a few drinks everything came pouring out, from their start as student teacher to the realization that Aria wasn't going to respond to his texts. Or emails. Or phone calls. Long story short after that experience Wesley wasn't Aria's biggest fan.

Ezra gritted his teeth, a pained expression on his face. His options were slim, he could leave Aria out of the conversation and let his brothers imagination run wild, or he could tell the truth and probably never hear the end of it. Ezra decided to go with the option that ensured him sleeping in a bed that night, rather than a spot on the couch.

"I'm bringing Aria, Wes."

"No shit." His brother sounded truly flabbergasted. "Well in that case, I take back everything I just said. It'll be nice to finally meet the girl that's had you running in a loop for five years."

Now that getting the Aria confession out of the way was over, Ezra nervously sat himself down on the living room couch, just another reminder that if he didn't tell Wesley about James that the couch was going to be his bed for the night, something that he wanted to avoid if possible. He began to fidget, and picked up one of Aria's abandoned bobby pins and ran it along the grain of the wood on the coffee table.

"Thanks man, I want to try and spare her from the craziness that is our family. I mean mom's menacing enough on a regular day, but add in relatives and dinner... Things get intense." Frustrated, Ezra sighed and ran a hand over his face. He didn't want to go for dinner, the entire idea was awful and he knew things were going to turn into a shit fest.

"I know what you mean. I'll act as a buffer between you guys, all right? But only to a point, seeing as I've got to keep my position as favourite son on lock." Ezra pictured a facetious smile on his brother's face. They were well aware of the hierarchy in the family, and Wes never let him forget it, to the point where it got annoying sometimes.

The sentence, however, made Ezra's stomach turn. The silence was growing too large, and Ezra knew he had to break it.

"I'm bringing one of those too."

"Bringing what? I didn't say anything. But in terms of food I'm pretty sure mom has it covered. You know how she is, everything has to be _perfection._" Ezra chuckled as Wesley imitated Dianne's voice. He'd gotten pretty good at it too. The joke had put his mind at ease, and he was able to spit the reason he'd phoned out.

"A son. I'm bringing my son... I kind of have one of those now." Internally Ezra cringed at how awkwardly he'd said it. The words came out so ungracefully he might have well been speaking gibberish.

After a few seconds of silence, Wesley cleared his throat. "Wait, you mean a kid? A walking, talking baby Fitz?"

"Yes, he's Aria and mine. After Aria found out she was pregnant, she left me, long story short. James will be five this May."

"Wow, that's… really huge. Congratulations, big brother. I can't wait to meet him. What's he like?"

Ezra could hear Rex barking outside, probably baiting Aria or James into chasing him around the yard for the umpteenth time that day. He was happy that they'd gotten Rex, he and James seemed to tire each other out at the exact same time; it worked out well for him and Aria.

"Well he looks like me, but is smaller like Aria. He has her wit and intelligence. He loves cars and reading, and honestly he's the most attentive, well mannered four year old I've ever met." Ezra could feel himself swell with pride as he described his son; there was no person he loved more on the earth than James, except Aria.

"Sounds like things are pretty good for you, Ezra. How'd mom take it? She's never been a fan of your 'surprises'. "

_As if I wasn't already aware that I'm going to be fighting a losing battle._

"You think I told mom? "Hi mom, I know I've been a colossal disappointment to you, but I knocked up my ex student!" Yeah Wes, I definitely told mom." Ezra was frustrated beyond belief. He didn't care too much about his mothers' opinions, but what he had no love in looking forward to were how her prejudices were going to leak onto her view of Aria, and more importantly, James.

"Ezra, calm down. Mom's not going to totally freak." In the moment of silence that passed, Ezra knew how big of a lie that statement was. "Actually, Mom's probably going to freak. I think you should tell her, save yourself the lecture in person."

It was then that Ezra hit that point where he realized he no longer wanted to talk to his brother, or anyone for that matter. He was aggravated to the point where thinking about his situation caused his blood to boil. He felt more than awful, even if Aria wanted to go, she had no idea what Dianne Fitzgerald was capable of.

"Listen Wes, I've gotta go. I'll see you Thursday." Without waiting for a goodbye, Ezra hung up and angrily slid his phone across the table.

" 'I knocked up my ex student.' That's a good way to put it." Aria said with a bitter edge to her voice. He hadn't been aware that she had come inside.

"You're right. I probably should have phrased that differently." He said as he got up and grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen.

"Yeah, no kidding." He couldn't see it, but Ezra could tell she was rolling her eyes.

"I just don't want her hurting you or James, or us." He'd spent a lot of time trying to keep his family out of his personal life, and now that he had a real family, no matter how long it had taken them to reach that point, Ezra was beyond hesitant to let his family touch any part of it.

Aria walked over and sat on the counter beside Ezra. She tenderly placed her hands on the sides of his face, rubbing her thumbs on his cheeks. "You make it sound like we're going to war. It's just Thanksgiving dinner."

He smiled somberly. "War makes it sound tame. Last year we had half the family erupt into an all out argument half an hour into dinner. My aunt Megan hasn't talked to us since." Aria looked kind of stunned, but quickly brought her emotions in.

"That was your Aunt. This is us, all right? We've been through so much and I'm not going to let your mom, no matter how terrible you say she is, hurt me in anyway. I can stand up for myself if I need to Ezra. I don't need to be protected." She pecked his lips. "Besides. Maybe things will be different this year."

Ezra knew that things were not going to be different this year, but he hoped having Wesley on their side would help, even moderately. He knew that there was no way he was going to be able to talk Aria out of Thanksgiving dinner with his family, so he settled for the fact that he'd tell her as much as he could about how to deal with his family.

Thankfully, Aria changed the subject. "Spencer said that she and Toby would take Rex on Thursday for us." She said as she hopped off the counter, intending to grab her sweater off of her chair. Before she could get too far, Ezra wrapped his arms around her and placed her back on the kitchen counter.

"That's great. Now one more thing before we go back to entertaining our hyperactive son and even more so puppy. I love you." He said, running his hands along her thighs.

She kissed him happily, bunching his shirt in her small hands. "I love you too. And trust me, no matter how crazy this dinner is on Thursday, _nothing_ is going to change between us. I promise, okay? You can stop worrying because I'm so sure that everything is going to turn out perfectly fine, and that you are worrying for absolutely no reason."

Ezra smiled, but even though Aria was so sure of herself, he couldn't shake the pit of doubt and worry that had planted itself in his stomach. He felt unsettled about Thursday, but as Aria grabbed his hand, some of the tension released itself. When she walked out the open front door, she looked back at him, and gave him a look that said 'stop worrying'. So he took a deep breath and pushed his doubts aside as he sat down again on the porch with Aria. Without even thinking he leaned his head on hers.

He wished he could have the same optimism that Aria had, but he'd been witness to too many fights and too many screamed words that had damaged relationships forever to believe her.


	25. Chapter 25

"So we're going to Daddy's Mommas?" James asked from the backseat. It was two in the afternoon, and somehow Aria and Ezra had gotten themselves and James ready in time to drop Rex off at the Cavanaugh/Hastings residence before one thirty. They planned to be at the Fitzgerald house hold around three thirty for an early dinner, and much to Ezra's surprise the day had gone without a hitch. So far.

"Yes. You're going to meet your Uncle Wesley and Grandma Dianne." Aria spoke from the passenger seat while she applied mascara for at least the third time in a half hour.

When Ezra poked fun at her, wondering how she'd managed not to poke herself fin the eye, Aria giggle and insisted that applying make in a moving vehicle was a 'honed talent'.

Ezra noticed that she had put a large amount in to her looks that day. A black shirt with a blue printed jeans and heels were a bit more dressy than her normal attire. After throwing a navy blue button down shirt on and some pants, Ezra had been forced to look at what must have been six outfit combinations.

Not that he was particularly opposed to his girlfriend modelling clothes for him, but eventually it got tiresome and comparing one shirt to another was boring. It didn't matter to him, because he thought she always looked stunning.

Apparently the response 'You'll look beautiful in whatever you wear' was not appropriate for meeting your boyfriend's mother for the first time.

"So Like Uncle Mike? That means he's Daddy's brother?"

Ezra looked at his son in the rear view mirror. "Yep, he's my little brother, bud."

Absentmindedly while he pushed a transformer out of its vehicle form, James asked, "Do you love your brother Daddy?"

The question surprised Ezra, he hadn't been expecting it. But he'd gotten used to the unexpected and never ending questions from his curious four year old.

"Of course I do, Jamie. He's my brother." Ezra knew that no matter how bad things were in their family, he'd always love his brother, even if he wasn't fond of him at times.

"I'd like a brother." James stated simply.

Aria nearly choked on the coffee she had begged Ezra to buy her from a Starbucks on the outskirts of Rosewood. He chuckled, seeing her startled expression. It reminded him of a deer caught in the headlights of a truck, but he calmly replied. "Well you have Rex, he can be your brother for now. He's just much furrier and marginally less... human."

Aria was still gasping for air, making sure to save her coffee by putting it in the cup holder. It seemed like the coffee was holding her together that morning, how much she'd pleaded Ezra just to run in and get her something.

"He's my dog-brother." Ezra laughed, between Aria wiping some of her drink off her face and James seeming awfully pleased with his 'dog-brother', he couldn't help himself. It was hilarious.

An hour and a half later, Ezra pulled into the driveway of his childhood home. It still looked the same as it always had; a large two story house with windows that never had a speck of dirt on them, the front gardens were always perfectly managed with blooming colourful flowers, and the fountain that he and Wesley had always gotten their baseballs stuck in as kids was spurting water.

Ezra looked cautiously over to Aria, who was balancing James on her hip, still half asleep after taking a nap on the way up. She looked perfectly calm, and Ezra wished he could have had a shot of whatever she'd taken that morning. Ha, if only. She seemed so calm about the whole ordeal, and Ezra wasn't sure how that was humanly possible.

With her free hand, Aria entwined hers with his. Ezra had a bouquet of flowers in the other arm; they'd seen them outside of a small convenience store in the town a few blocks away from the Fitzgerald residence.

With the quick exhale of a breath, Ezra raised his hand and knocked on the front door.

"Ready?" Aria asked.

He nodded. "Ready." With a quick squeeze of her hand, he looked up and came face to face with his mother at the door, smiling as motherly as she could manage.

"Hi Mom." He gave her the flowers and hugged her, pecking her on the cheek. He pulled away and made his way into the front hallway, taking in all the memories he'd had in this house. Ezra left home at eighteen, eager to get away from his mother and all the baggage that came with being a Fitzgerald. Wesley had been fourteen at the time, and Ezra felt kind of bad still about leaving him behind. It dawned on him that he hadn't introduced Aria.

"Oh, mom. This is my girlfriend, Aria."

He watched as Aria flash the smile that made his stomach do flips.

"Nice to meet you Ms. Fitzgerald." The two women shook hands, and Ezra watched in anticipation as his mom insisted that she be called Dianne.

"And who is this?" Ezra knew what was coming before it even happened, his son having the personality that he did.

James opened his eyes finally, revealing his stunning baby blues. "I'm James William Fitz. You're my Grandma, right?" Dianne turned around facing Ezra her eyes wide in disbelief. She cocked her head in a way that said, 'we're discussing this later'.

She turned back and shook James' tiny proffered hand. "

I guess I am. Nice to meet you too, James William. Now everybody come into the dining room, Wesley was just working on dinner. He's become quite a good chef over the years. Always was, even as a child." It took everything Ezra had not to roll his eyes. It had already begun; the tiny little digs at him that his mom made sure to throw in to reassure him of his status in the family.

Lovely.

"Big brother!" Ezra heard from the kitchen. He chuckled as Wesley came around and hugged him. "Long time since we've seen each other." The other Fitz had always looked a little more like their dad than Dianne. The lighter hair, the slightly larger build. He'd gotten Dianne's eyes though, while Ezra had inherited his fathers. Wesley had always had the preppy look; he'd taken to the polo shirts and clubs that their mother had enrolled them in as clubs quickly. He'd been the model son, always following mom and dad's orders, while Ezra had always been the opposite.

"And you must be Aria. I can understand why you have my brother thrown through a loop." He and Aria shook hand before Wesley crouched down so he was now at James' height.

After meeting Dianne he'd asked to be put down, and Aria kindly obliged.

"And what's your name?" When asking the question, Wesley looked at Ezra and winked. Nice of him not to sell Ezra out in front of their mom.

"James William Fitz."

"That's a good name, buddy. I'm Uncle Wes." It took a few seconds, but James cracked a small smile. Within a few hours Ezra was sure his son would be more talkative. It generally took him a bit to warm up to strangers.

"Hi. Do you like cars?" The little boy nervously fidgeted in his pocket, fumbling around with one of the many toys he'd probably jammed in to the small space.

"I think a better question is who doesn't like cars." Wesley smiled, and Ezra chuckled a little as he realized that he, Wesley and James had the exact same smile. Carbon Fitz copies.

Dianne cleared her throat in the kitchen, and all the adults turned to her.

"So I'm interested in how all of this came to be." She said, motioning to Aria and Ezra. "You're the same girl from a few years back, am I correct? When Ezra lost both of his jobs in Rosewood?" Way to ruin the moment.

Words caught in Aria's throat; Dianne was awfully... to the point. What's she supposed to say? '_Yes, I'm the reason he quit his job so we could be together, then lost his other one because my father was a closed minded hypocrite.'_ Pretty much everything a guy's mother wants to hear.

"I didn't lose both my jobs, Mom, cut it out. I left one for a better opportunity, and that fell through." Ezra's hands tightened on the dining room table.

Dianne looked so casual while she chopped up some red peppers. It didn't appear to bother her that she was ripping up her son's life choices. "And she was your better opportunity?"

"James, do you want to go see all the model cars your dad and I built when we were kids?" As if that was even a question for the little boy. Already he was beginning to warm up to Wesley, and he happily skipped off with him.

Impatiently, Dianne tapped her nails against the granite countertop. "Yes, mom, she was my better opportunity. How about you have some class and don't bring up this kind of thing in front of my son?"

"Hm, yes. The son who's life you missed a couple years from? Because as far as I know this is a recent development." Ezra's blood curdled at how she pronounced recent; like it was a dirty word. Her turned to Aria, and gave her what he could best describe as his 'I told you so' look. It hadn't even been ten minutes and already it was like they were being interrogated.

Heaven forbid if they could actually sit down like a civilized family.

"It'd be nice if you could actually stay out of my business without having your own opinion about everything I do. For starters, yes, I was out of a job for a bit, five years ago. I'm back working there now, in a stable position. Aria and I are together with our son, and I've never been happier."

Why was everything so difficult for them? They always had to go against the odds and fight battles just to be with each others. Every time things were going well, life had to throw a wrench into the mix like seeing the two of them being thrown through a loop brought the universe some kind of sick entertainment.

Then again, a voice in his head brought up the point that what they had was worth fighting for.

"Daddy!" James' yell from upstairs was unmistakeable. "Come play with me and Uncle Wes!" Ezra looked to Aria, because there was no way he was going to leave her alone with his mother; it's asking for a cage match. But she rolled her eyes and pushed him to go.

"I can handle myself, Ezra."

She could handle herself, but Dianne was a force all on her own. Still, James was now pleading him, and it was hard to deny him anything when he did that. He placed a kiss on her forehead before going upstairs.

"Do you need any help with that?" Aria motioned to dinner. There was a pile of vegetables left to chop and she could see an empty pie crust sitting on the end of the counter. By the smell of things, the turkey was already in the oven and almost done.

"If you really want to help, you can chop these veggies while I prepare the pie." Aria nodded and went to work. It was silent; the only sounds in the room were the rhythmic chopping that came from her and Dianne. It felt like there was a lot to be said, but Aria wasn't sure what to say. She wasn't really in the position to get into their family issues, but she hated how Dianne had decided to drag Ezra through the mud for no apparent reason.

Five years ago she probably would have stayed silent at the matter, but having a son of her own she knew that she would never do the same to James.

After finishing all of the vegetables and throwing them into the pot on the counter, she wiped the knife clean and turned to Dianne. "I don't mean to impose, or anything, but its Thanksgiving, and maybe you could go a little easier on Ezra?" She hated how she sounded, but she didn't want to anger Dianne further. No use in poking a sleeping bear.

"So you do speak. I don't like you very much, dear." Aria blinked a few times, surprised. She'd known the woman for what, twenty five minutes, in which she'd probably spoken to her for two, and she was already passing judgement on her. "And I'm sure the feeling is mutual, but in this family, I'm sure it's evident that we have very little room for blemishes. Ever since Ezra decided to forsake the family name it's just been a downward spiral, so I guess you can understand why I'm a little harsh on him."

"Harsh? That seems like an understatement considering the first thing you did when we got here was psychoanalyze everything that's happened between him and I and immediately peg everything on me, even if there's nothing wrong with what happened. He's your son."

The older woman cocked her head to the side and smiled, in that fake sweet way that you see on television when you see the stereotypical socialites in a tense setting. "And seeing as you have James-William, you can understand why I only want the best for my son. As a mom surely you want the best for your child."

The question made Aria feel sick, because if you wanted the best for your child, you shouldn't be the one trying to control what that meant. The moment something didn't work for you, as a mother you aren't supposed to turn on your kid and act like they've committed some kind of heinous crime.

"I want the best for him, of course, but the best for him is going to be carried by his own discretion, once he's old enough. And I'm not going to antagonize him for his choices, because I'm raising him in a way where that's encouraged." She couldn't help it as her voice began to rise louder and louder.

"I'm sure Ezra dragged you here-"

"Actually I was the one who persuaded him to come. He didn't want to but I was the one who suggested we go." She couldn't help it; Aria let a sarcastic smile come across her face. "So maybe you want to take a look at what you want for your son and realize that you can't control him, and you can't condemn him for his actions." A mini victory dance erupted in Aria's head when she saw Dianne staring speechlessly at her.

_I bet this is one of the few times that's ever happened._

"Maybe if you can get off your high horse next time he won't have to be persuaded into coming. I've said what I had to say, if you want to pass me those apples, I'll peel them and there's a slight possibly we can get through this without wanting to tear each other apart."

James was in awe at the amount of cars that were accumulated in one room. Ezra remembered spending a lot of his time as a kid working on them with Wesley, and keeping them in the pool room. As they got older they referred to it as the 'man cave', the only spot in the house that their mother shied away from due to the fact that it was never organized or clean.

In the middle was a pool table, and the surrounding walls were covered with posters and shelves with models on them. A work bench was tucked away on the back wall, still stocked with everything they needed. Even though it was clear that it hadn't been touched in years, the pool table was still kept in good condition, seeing as Wesley occasionally used it to have his friends over instead of his dorm on campus.

One of the reasons Ezra was happy he became a teacher; less school. While he liked teaching, he was never fond of being taught. Sitting in a class room listening to an old professor ramble on never held any merit to him. Learning was fascinating, but it had to be presented in the right way. That's what led him towards being a teacher.

Jamie was scampering around the room, eager to see everything he could. He knew that touching them was not a good idea, and he made sure to have his hands clasped behind his back while Wesley lifted him up to see.

"Here James, you can play with this one, if you want." Off one of the upper shelves, Wesley grabbed one of the newer looking models and gave it to him. It was familiar, and then Ezra remembered that it was one of the last ones they had built before Ezra moved out.

"Pretty sure that was the last one that we built together." Wesley said as the two grown men took a step back.

"I think I left a couple of months later." Ezra said. It was funny, he never really considered how he'd just left his brother alone. At the time all he had to do was get up and get out, and it didn't matter what he had to leave behind.

Wesley nodded. "The rest I built alone, until I was like, sixteen." Ezra couldn't help but notice the hollow tone in his brother's voice. They stood in silence, watching James run the car around on the ground. "I'm sorry I've been such an asshole all these years, man. Letting Mom act how she does. You don't deserve it."

Ezra didn't know how to react; Wesley's apology had come right out of left field, he wasn't expecting it at all. But he knew why; being in that room together brought back when they were close, when they were almost inseparable. And Ezra had just packed up and left.

"I shouldn't have left when I did, Wes. I left you alone, and I shouldn't have."

Wesley scoffed. "No, you had to. Out of the both of us you were the only one to have enough balls to actually get up and leave. And from the looks of it, things have worked out pretty well. I was always mom's favourite because I didn't know how to stand up to her; I just went with whatever she asked. I was always jealous of you for that."

Ezra clapped a hand on his brother's shoulder. "It's okay. If there's one thing I've learned from all of this, it's that we've got to move forward. Besides, look at you, you're going to be a lawyer, all top notch-"

"I'm not becoming a lawyer. I _might_ have switched my major. I'm studying forensic anthropology. And I haven't exactly told mom yet."

Holy shit. How he got away with that, Ezra had no idea, but he was proud of him for finally sticking up for himself.

"I switched two years ago, I'm almost done my degree. I've managed to keep mom completely in the dark. And don't give me that look, because there's no way I'm telling her until the end of this year. You know she'll cut funding like that." He snapped his fingers. "I've got this."

Ezra was brought out of the conversation by James tugging on his pant leg. "Daddy how do you play pool?"

"If there's enough time, I'll teach you after dinner, okay? We should go see Mom." James nodded and raced down the stairs after carefully placing the car he was playing with on the pool table. He could barely reach over the edge but managed to do it.

Wesley chuckled. "I can't believe that you left her down there alone. Mom's going to tear her apart."

"You'd be surprised what she's capable of, Wes. Don't doubt her for a second." When they got down the stairs, all was quiet in the kitchen. The two women were working around each other without a single word being exchanged.

Wesley rolled up the sleeves on his grey sweater. "Need some help? I'll switch out with you, Aria."

She smiled gratefully and ran her hands under the water in the sink before wiping them dry and making a beeline for Ezra.

"You were right." They both said at the same time. They each cocked an eyebrow. It was funny how in synch they were sometimes.

"We should have never come." Aria whispered.

"It's a good thing we came." Ezra said.

They looked at each other for a second before bursting into laughter.

"Did my mother give you a hard time?"

Aria shrugged. "Whatever she gave me I dished it right back at her. We've been chopping and slicing for the last twenty five minutes where the only noise is the boiling water. It was starting to get a little creepy." Ezra could see her relax marginally when he ran his hands up and down her arms. "And so I'm assuming things went well with your brother?"

"We figured a few things out, yes. I'll tell you on the way home when my mother doesn't have her stare locked on us like we're a couple of thieves in a bank." He trailed his thumb gently across her cheek. "Just dinner and desert and we can get out of here, okay?"

She nodded and laced their fingers together as they went and sat down at the dinner table.

"Momma, Daddy said that we're gonna have a guys day soon! How cool is that?" Leave it to Jamie to break the ice in a room. Aria smiled and tousled his hair.

"Very cool. That means I get to have a girls day, and all your aunts will be over. You boys can go to the apartment, we call dibs on the house."

"Since when do you guys call dibs on the house? We just decided this today!" Ezra asked.

"I just did. You should have called dibs earlier. Otherwise it's up for grabs. Am I right, Jamie?" Aria got up and help Wesley put some of the food on the table. Ezra's eyes were bigger than his stomach at that moment. Potatoes, carrots, peas, salad, turkey, buns, ham and stuffing all looked delicious.

"Yep! That's how we do it at school." He pulled himself into the chair beside Aria, opposite Wesley. Ezra remained directly across from Aria, and Dianne was naturally left the head of the table.

"Nice to know we're deciding this using the same system four year olds use." He flashed her a sarcastic grin.

"If it's not broken, don't fix it." Wesley said as he placed the cranberry sauce on the table.

For once in his life, Ezra had a fairly peaceful holiday dinner. Dianne was virtually mute all throughout dinner, and he wondered what Aria had said to her.

Hey, he welcomed the abnormality, sadly enough he had to refer to everything going smoothly as abnormal. James had eaten more than Ezra though possible, and was now slouched in his chair, his hands resting on his tiny belly.

"I'm stuffed." He announced. "That was good Grandma." The kid never forgot his manners.

"Thank you sweetheart, but I hope there's room for dessert." Immediately James perked up, straightening his back and smiled sweetly.

"There's always room for that!"

The group laughed at his innocence. Even though things had gone well up to a point, it was like an instinct in Ezra to be waiting for something. There was no way this could have gone the way it did without a single hitch.

Apple pie was served warm with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream, James making sure to put an obnoxious amount of both on his little slice of pie.

"So Ezra, how is it at Rosewood High?" Wesley asked as he sprayed the remainder of the whipped cream on his pie. Conversation had run thin after allowing James to basically take the opportunity to tell Wesley and Dianne all about himself. For a four year old who was shy at first, given the chance he could talk like there was no tomorrow.

"Good. I was happy they let me back last year. It's a lot of work, but it's rewarding. Aria happened to move back to Rosewood after getting a job at the high school too."

"Teaching is an okay profession." Of course Dianne had to throw her two cents in. "Nothing on becoming a lawyer, right Wesley?" Ezra almost choked on his pie to try and keep from laughing. If only she knew. But Wesley played his part well and went along with it. If that's what he had to do to keep going to school to do what he loved, so be it. "Something funny, Ezra?"

The pair of brothers made eye contact and cracked a grin, but said nothing. "Nope, just went down the wrong tube." The superior expression on his mother bothered him; she looked at him because he didn't follow the path she'd put him on he was lesser, and that just wasn't the case. He knew he shouldn't have to prove anything to her, but he couldn't let his mom pull away from this one feeling like she won.

"For me, teaching trumps being in law any time. Because every time I see someone have that light flick on, I know that I've made some sort of a difference. Besides, who are you to judge, you've done nothing but live off of dad's alimony payments."

The breath was sucked out of the room, except for James, who was happily munching on his mountain of ice cream.

"And you not being able to come up with a reason against it is proof enough that there is no way that you should be offering your opinion on how Aria and I live our lives. Or Wesley for that matter." His brother shot him a grateful look. "So next time you want to invite my family over for dinner, you need to forget your prejudices, because I don't want that around them. Or we don't come at all. Fair enough?"

After a staring match that was high up on the intensity scales, Dianne conceded. "Fair enough."

For the next hour, conversation drifted lazily, and Dianne was civil when putting her own opinions out there. For once in his life, Ezra had said everything he needed to say to her face. He didn't run away from his problems, and it felt good.

He knew his mom had more to say, but he wasn't interested in hearing it.

James had passed out on the couch in the living room and it was almost seven o clock, so Aria and Ezra said their goodbyes. The ones with Wesley were more genuine than with Dianne, but not a single person had ended up drunk, crying in the bathroom or leaving the premises. Both Ezra and Wesley considered the afternoon a success.

Aria and Wesley got on well enough, and towards the end of the night James had been pretty comfortable with his uncle. Then again, he had a massive model car collection and with Jamie's interests anyone with a collection that big the four year old would consider a friend.

Aria was carrying a sleeping James as they walked out the door.

"I'll text you next time I'm in Rosewood, and we'll go grab drinks, sound good?"

"Sure thing Wes. Good luck with school." Ezra said with a wink.

It was clear that something had gone down between the boys, because the way they were acting was not at all how Ezra had told Aria their relationship worked. She figured she'd ask him later, once they were home if she wasn't passed out by then as well.

After all the food she'd consumed, their bed was calling her for a good night's rest.

Fastening James in his car seat had been easy with him asleep, and when Aria sat down in the passenger's seat she fought the urge to close her eyes. When Ezra climbed in and turned on the car, the heat coming out of the vents felt good.

"I'd ask you what went down with my mom but you look like you're about to drop." He remarked, brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

"I'd ask you about you and Wesley's sudden bond but I can barely keep my eyes open." All she wanted was to curl into their bed and wrap herself in the comforter.

Ezra smiled. "Tomorrow then."

"Tomorrow."


	26. Chapter 26

"How're you feeling Ar? Finally pulled yourself out of bed?" Emily said, putting on the final coat of red nail polish in even strokes.

Aria hastily popped another chip in her mouth. "Finally. It was like three days of just throwing up. I finally started to feel better this afternoon." She went to reach for a cracker, but Aria's inner voice halted her; a reminder of having spent the better part of three days with her head in the toilet.

It was the same thing every day; get up, throw up and then spend the rest of the day feeling like she got run over by a truck. Ezra had been patient throughout the whole ordeal, making sure James was occupied while simultaneously making sure Aria was okay.

"I want to eat everything and nothing all at once, it's actually really annoying." Against her better judgment, she popped a scoop chip filled with salsa into her mouth. Her own nails had been done by Hanna, claiming that since she was still on sick relief that Hanna would 'fulfill her duties as a best friend' and paint her nails for her. Bright pink with a clear coat on top, they were more Hanna's taste than hers, but hey, she got a free manicure out of it, Aria wasn't going to complain.

She almost felt guilty for not telling them; but the moment the thought came across her mind she pushed it away. It was over and done with, she had nothing to worry about but making sure James hadn't caught her stomach flu.

Hell, Ezra didn't even know, and she wasn't sure if it was a good idea to bring it up with him. It was her secret to guard for now, thankfully harmless as a fly, but it was eating at her inside not to share what was on her mind.

"So Em, how's your love life?" Hanna asked nonchalantly adding sparkles to her toenails. Hanna was what she had deemed as being 'on an official break' with Caleb. Aria wasn't sure why they didn't just apologize for the whole ordeal and admit things had gotten out of hand. Hanna and Caleb were both the kind of people to let their pride get in the way of their decisions, so she felt it was best not to press on. There was no point in arguing with Hanna, she was going to be stubborn with her point until the very end.

"It's lacking, to put it nicely. Rosewood is currently out of stock of people that I deem dateable." Emily sighed.

"Well considering how things have gone lately for me and how stupid boys are, I've sworn them off for at least a month." Hanna said, making all of the girls let out a giggle, even Spencer, who had been surprisingly reserved that afternoon, only chipping in when addressed directly. "I could always join you on the other team." She joked.

"Yeah, and even then pickings are slim, Han."

Hanna shrugged and popped the last few chips into her mouth. "I guess. It's not like all of us have amazing boys who propose at the right time and stuff, right Spence?" When Spencer remained stuck in her thoughts for a few seconds, Emily flung a nail file at her.

"Earth to Spencer!"

"Yeah of course I totally agree." It was like speaking to a robot with the default response enabled. Immediately she glazed back over and drifted off into space. Hanna, Emily and Aria looked at each other and silently gave each other the 'should we ask her about it?' look.

Of course the answer was no, because if Spencer had a secret she would tell them when she was ready. Aria's stomach twisted into knots, thankfully not because she was going to throw up, but out of anxiety. Maybe if she spilled, so would Spencer? If there was going to be a point where she told them, it would be now. Ezra and James were at the apartment with Toby and Hardy for a guys day, the house was silent except for Aria's room, where they were. Jamie had insisted on taking Rex with them as well, seeing as technically he was a guy as well.

"I'm going to go grab some more food. We're out of salsa and the chips just aren't the same." Emily announced, grabbing the bowl they'd put in the middle of the room.

Hanna got up as well, announcing her need to pee. _Delightful._

Spencer sat with her knees tucked up against her chest, leaning back on the soft duvet covered bed, her head rolled to the side. "Spencer. Spencer." Aria called her friends name at least five times before she made some kind of indication she heard her.

"Hm."

Aria got up from across the room and sat down next to her. "What's wrong, and don't give me some random excuse because all of us know something's up." Spencer looked up at her and gave her an unsteady look; it held a mixture of emotions, ranging from confusion to worry to insecurity, and Aria couldn't help but crawl over and wrap her arms around her.

"Whatever it is, it's going to be okay Spence, seriously." She could feel Spencer nodding, but before she could elaborate on that, there was a shriek from the bathroom.

"ARIA MONTGOMERY!" Hanna screamed, and came bursting out of the bathroom. "You're not sick at all, are you? Because there's a freaking pregnancy test box in your garbage can!" Aria paled. Well, the cat was out of the bag now, kind of.

"It's not what it looks like, really Han." Aria tried to argue her point but was cut off by Emily yelling from the kitchen. She heard a clatter and rushed footsteps get to the bottom of the stairs.

"There is no discussing this until I can get up there and hear it all!"

Hanna rolled her eyes, and impatiently tapped her foot against the ground and waited for Emily to come running up the stairs, a bowl of salsa in one hand and a bag of two bite brownies that she'd procured from nowhere in the other. "Okay now spill."

Aria started up immediately, the sooner she could squash their assumptions, the better. "So I was sick yes, and I was late, and then I figured well there's a possibility, you know-"

Hanna let out a squeal so high pitched that Aria was surprised her windows were still intact afterwards. "I call godmother!"

Emily smacked her. "You can't have both! You have to give me and Spencer a chance."

"Will you two just shut up for a minute so I can explain myself? It's not what it looks like, at all. You guys are jumping to conclusions.'' Hanna turned around and reached the garbage can from the bathroom, curving around the wall balancing on one leg while grasping the can and then putting it in the middle of the room for them to see.

Unfortunately the box that had been resting on top shifted to reveal the little stick itself, and Hanna's eyes bulged. "Holy fuck, it's positive!" And that's when Aria's words got caught in her throat.

Because last time she'd checked, it had been a little negative sign, glaring her in the face. She'd been so relieved at that moment, but at the same time felt just a slight pang of sadness. There was no way it had just magically formed another line in a few hours, that's not how those things worked.

Her eyes couldn't help but fly down to her stomach, surprised that Hanna and Emily were actually silent for a second while she took it in.

"I don't understand, it was negative this morning- I'm one hundred percent sure it was negative. Trust me, I didn't read it wrong or anything, it's pretty hard to mess that up."

They three girls clamored amongst each other debating reasons for the faulty test for a few minutes before they were interrupted by the smallest of sniffles. "It's not Aria's." Spencer murmured. Aria felt awful because she'd completely forgotten about Spencer.

It clicked, that was why she had been so introverted and silent for almost two hours.

"Oh my god, Spencer. You're pregnant." Emily whispered, the mood in the room shifting instantly. Spencer sniffled as a few tears fell down her cheeks. Without even thinking the girls gravitated towards her, forming a protective circle around her.

Aria admired Spencer for holding it in this long, keeping her worries inside. But as things always did, the moment the secret was out the girls were there for her.

"Don't cry Spencer, really, I'm sure everything will be fine, okay? Seriously you and Toby will be great parents, you're always so good with Rex-"

"That's a dog, Aria." She snapped.

Aria brushed some of Spencer's hair out of her tear streaked face. "And James. He adores you and Toby, really. Plus you have all of us." Hanna and Emily nodded in agreement.

"But what if Toby doesn't want it. Them. They're not exactly planned. We're not married- Oh my god the wedding. My mom is going to flip. I'm going to be really pregnant on my wedding day you guys." The idea was absurd to Aria; Toby not wanting his and Spencer's kid. For some reason he always seemed like he'd be a great father, and they way he looked at Spencer was the same way that Ezra looked at her, and Aria was so sure that he'd do anything for Spencer.

"Spence, Toby would follow you to the ends of the earth and back if you asked him to. Seriously, how cute would a little baby Spencer and Toby be? You know he's not the kind of guy to flip out or anything." Hanna read Aria's mind exactly.

"Little brown puppy dog eyes and sandy blonde hair, walking around? They'd be perfect, their parents are gorgeous." Emily said, popping a brownie into her mouth. "Want one?" Aria and Hanna declined, but Spencer woefully took one herself.

"Seriously Spencer, everything will be okay. Toby and you will have one of the most genetically flawless kids to grace the planet, and you can always push the wedding back. What if you had a winter wedding? That could be so pretty! Do it soon and you will barely be showing."

Spencer leaned her head back on the bed, exhaling deeply and wiping the tears that clung to her eyelashes away. "I have to tell Toby that we're having a baby. Oh my god."

"Trust me, tell him as soon as possible. I learned that mistake the hard way." Aria said, twirling a chip around in salsa. She marveled at how addictive they were, she hadn't even noticed reaching for one. "Wait, so why did you decide to take the test in my bathroom? If Ezra had seen that he would have flipped!" Aria felt guilty about laughing about what his reaction would be like, but the expression of his that had popped into her head on instinct was hilarious, all wide eyed and confused.

"I didn't want Toby finding it."

Aria could relate; she'd thrown her test into the deep recesses of the kitchen garbage, making sure there was no chance of Ezra finding it, even on accident. She wasn't sure if she was going to mention the little scare to him or not, there was no need to create unnecessary worry.

Just having the flu was good enough for her, and Aria was pretty sure Ezra hadn't even let the idea of pregnancy into his mind, even for a second.

"Are you excited? Even just a little?" Spencer looked up to Hanna and gave her the smallest of smiles and a nod.

"Even though they're a surprise, maybe it'll be a blessing in disguise." The girls had already been through the surprise pregnancy drill after dealing with Aria when she found out she was pregnant with James. Oh boy had that ever been a mess. Aria had cried for days when she found out and then days after once she'd left Ezra. Not to mention all the ones in between. If anything the four of them were over prepared for whatever Spencer could possibly face, they'd seen and done it all before.

"I just don't want to lose Toby."

Aria let Spencer lay her head on her shoulder, and gently patted her hair in sympathy. "Spence, seriously you look at me who was afraid of the same thing, look how much Ezra loves James. As soon as Toby finds out he'll be ecstatic. So what if the timing's off? You two will be fine, really."

The constant doubts that whispered in Spencer's mind were no stranger to Aria; she knew all too well just how terrifying of a situation Spencer was in, but she also knew that Spencer was worrying for nothing, and that Toby would love her no matter what happened.

Finally it seemed that everyone had calmed down, they left the topic of the new Hastings/Cavanaugh baby alone. It was clear that Spencer was freaking out about it. Even though she'd gotten pretty good at internalizing her feelings over the years, Emily, Aria and Hanna were still able to read her a mile away.

After popping in a chick flick and munching on popcorn for two hours, the girls were almost asleep on the couches. "I think I have a food hangover you guys. All we've done today is eat." Aria moaned, arching her back and grimacing as she heard cracks go all the way up her spine.

"Thanksgiving for a few days and then junk for the rest, sounds good to me." Without regret, Emily popped a rainbow chip cookie in her mouth, finishing off the box. Aria's mind wandered as the girls made small talk about little things, and she reached across to grab her phone from the table and sent a quick text to Ezra.

**What are you guys up to? – A**

"Aria! Girls day!" Hanna snapped. "I know you're texting Ezra, don't try and pull some random excuse either, okay?" Aria let a guilty smile creep across her face and tucked the phone in her back pocket. "Fine Han, I won't touch anymore, deal?"

"Deal. What movie should we watch next?"


	27. Chapter 27

**I know it's been a year and a half since an update… But before reading, I suggest you read the authors note I put on my profile! Thanks! Also, as a refresher, read through the story again. I've edited the old chapters, improved upon them and such… Now enjoy the **_**long**_** awaited chapter of 5:00! **

_Later that afternoon_

"James, grab me a beer!" Hardy called from Ezra's couch, to which James dutifully did. It'd been his job all afternoon to fetch beers for Ezra, Hardy and Toby when they called for it. The kid was delighted to be a part of a 'boys day' and to be the official 'beer grabber'.

Not to mention he'd asked when he could have his own beer. They all laughed and said he had to be at least twenty five before he could have a drink.

Ezra smiled; he knew that he spent a lot of time with his aunts, to be around this many adult guys wasn't something he was used to, and Jamie was loving it.

"I don't know who spoils him more," Ezra remarked, taking a sip of his beer. "Us, or the girls…"

Toby and Hardy laughed. They knew that they'd given him more chocolate than a four year old probably ever should have, and Ezra even let him have a little bit of root beer, something he and Aria normally tried to avoid.

But if the adults got to have some beer, than Jamie got to have something special too.

"Thanks Jamie." Hardy said as he got the beer.

The two got on wonderfully; all afternoon Hardy had been explaining how baseball worked. They'd been watching the Phillies versus Blue Jays and every time the guys cheered, Jamie wanted to know exactly what was good that had happened.

"It's going, it's going-"

"Gone!" Jamie shouted, waving his hands over his head.

The ball sailed into the stands, the second home run of the day, making it 7-1 for the Phillies.

Hardy lifted Jamie over his head, running him around the apartment in celebration. Ezra chuckled as he watched his son burst into a fit of giggles.

"Toby, no texting." Ezra said sarcastically. Toby and Hardy had given him shit earlier for responding to one of Aria's texts.

"Boys day", they'd said before proceeding to wrestle Ezra to the ground to take his phone. He could hear the occasional buzz coming from the other side of Hardy, but every time it did Jamie would shake his head fervently before adamantly stating that there were no girls allowed, even if they were texting.

Another buzz went off as Hardy put Jamie back down on the couch.

Toby chuckled sarcastically and tucked his phone in his pocket. "Why don't you take your own advice."

Taking a swig of his beer, Ezra shrugged. "I haven't texted back, not my fault."

"Daddy, you and momma text so much." James said, drawing out the 'so'. "I mean, me and my girlfriend don't even talk that much."

All three of the guys chorused sounds of surprise.

"A girlfriend, Jamie? Wow, when did you become a ladies' man?" Toby asked poking him in the stomach.

"Clearly not from his Dad." Hardy laughed. Ezra let out a sarcastic chuckle before taking another draught of his beer, effectively finishing it off.

"Well, me and her held hands once so I think she's my girlfriend. Plus we play together sometimes." A perplexed look came across the little boy's face; his eyebrows knitted together tightly and he looked at his hands. "You and Momma hold hands and kiss. I don't wanna kiss though. That's gross."

"Tell you what Jamie, let's not tell your mom about this. Keep this between the guys, okay? She'll have a heart attack." Ezra ruffled his son's hair. "And no kissing, you're right. Too many cooties for someone your age."

James furrowed his little eyebrows and nodded.

"Exactly. Like beer. No kissing till twenty five."

They all laughed, before turning their attention back to the baseball game and idly chatting. A few minutes later, Ezra's head snapped to the other side of the room when his phone started buzzing consistently.

"Now I know that we said no texting, but phone calls are different, okay?" He looked at Hardy and Toby who shrugged, and reached for his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hi babe." Aria said sweetly on the other line. "How's your day been?"

Ezra leaned back in his chair, smiling at the sound of her voice. It never failed to make him happy to know she was back in his life.

"It's been great. We've spent the whole day doing nothing but catching up, drinking and watching sports. Typical guys day."

Aria laughed on the other line "You and sports? Really?"

"Hey!" Ezra said, mock defensively. "I watch sports. On occasion. Like today. This is an occasion."

Aria made a skeptical noise on the other line.

"Whatever you say Ezra." She teased. "Anyways, do you mind if I spend the night at your place? I can come by after Toby and Hardy leave? We can order Chinese? James will be thrilled."

Ezra's attention was momentarily distracted by the baseball game; Toby, Hardy and James all had their arms up in the air, cheering. Philadelphia was up another run. He smiled as James gave a high five to each Hardy and Toby.

"Sounds great, baby. I'll text you once we're done here, okay?"

"Okay, see you later. Love you."

"Love you." He said before hanging up.

A couple hours later, James and Ezra were cleaning up the apartment. James was in charge of cleaning up the empty beer bottles while Ezra was tidying up the empty pizza boxes and straightening out the living room.

"Daddy, you and Hardy are best friends, like me and Cooper, right?" James asked as he put the final beer bottle by the front door.

Ezra nodded.

"Yep, we've been best friends since college. That was a long time ago buddy, in case you were wondering."

He watched as James walked over to him, a look of concentration on his face. For a couple moments, he didn't say anything; he just stood at Ezra's feet, pondering whatever his little head was cooking up.

"So, like Auntie Nan and momma, you guys have been friends forever. So… Shouldn't that make Hardy my uncle?"

Ezra smiled. James and Hardy got along better than he'd anticipated. Hardy had always been the stereotypical bachelor; never with a girl for longer than necessary, never thought about settling down and having kids. He was enjoying life, more career oriented than anything. Ezra couldn't count how many times he'd heard Hardy say that he never wanted kids.

Yet with James it was different; he favoured the little boy. Ezra didn't blame him; it was hard to not favour Jamie once he'd wrapped his tiny hands around your heart.

"Well Jamie, if you want to call him Uncle Hardy you can, I'm sure he's more than okay with that."

James nodded enthusiastically, a giant smile taking up his tiny face.

"Okay daddy!" With an excited jump on the couch he ran back over to the kitchen table and resumed work on the drawing he'd started before they cleaned up.

Ezra looked over; it was of him and Rex. The two were almost inseparable, it took James heavy convincing that no, they couldn't bring him grocery shopping, or to school, or to the movies. Tyrannosaurus Rex was pretty much housetrained by now; he was okay with staying by himself at the house, although this particular day he was staying at Ella and Byron's for the night.

Just like James, Rex was hard not to love.

Time went by quickly after the cleaning was done. Ezra sat down on the couch and pulled out a book while James coloured. Occasionally he looked up to watch his son at work. It was funny how he looked like Aria when she was doing something creative.

She always told him that James looked like him when he concentrated, but whenever he was focused, all Ezra could see was Aria's features in their son.

"Knock, knock!"

Ezra looked to the door as Aria pushed in, her hands filled with bags of Chinese food.

"Momma!"

James ran to her and before giving her a hug, pulled one of the bags out of her hands to carry. Ezra got up as well and took another, splitting the work load.

He placed a kiss on her forehead before swinging the bag onto the counter. James was trying to reach, put his bag on top as well, but he wasn't quite tall enough.

"Hi little man! I heard you had a good day with the boys, watching baseball, must have been fun."

His attention diverted, James dropped the bag of food onto the floor. Thankfully it wasn't too far of a fall, and Ezra was able to pick it up quickly.

"Oh yeah momma, it was the best! Uncle Toby and Uncle Hardy and Daddy and I had so much fun! Uncle Hardy taught me all about baseball. Did you know…"

Aria gave Ezra a smile as she helped him unpack all of the Chinese food while James told her about every rule of baseball he had learned. She and Ezra worked in rhythmic silence, easily navigating around each other while they listened to James.

They worked flawlessly together, knowing exactly what the other needed without saying it.

Sneaking a look at James, who was back at work on his drawing, Ezra planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

"Uncle Hardy now, is it?" She asked in a hushed tone, amused.

Ezra shrugged. "James asked to call him that, don't ask me."

Grabbing three plates, two bigger, one smaller, Aria smiled. Whatever James wanted, she pretty much went with it.

"And if you touch the base before the other guy, he's out! Isn't that cool momma?" James shouted from the kitchen table.

"Very cool! Now, how about you go put that drawing on the desk and wash up for dinner, okay? By the time you get back, it'll be on the table. Ready? Three, two, one…" Without looking the pair of them knew James had taken off.

It was easy now for Ezra, to pick up on the routine that had been established for four years. He no longer had to ask what to do, or what something meant. He knew that countdowns before dinner were generally a common occurrence, or that if Jamie had a nightmare, Aria would let him sleep in her bed with her. Saturday nights generally meant movie night, and ninety percent of the time it meant having to talk James out of watching Finding Nemo, yet again.

It was all new and unfamiliar, but at the same time, it wasn't. To Ezra, it felt like this was always a part of his life. That being James' dad was just a staple of his day to day living. Not like it'd been just over a month of learning to be a dad.

He brushed a piece of hair over Aria's shoulder before grabbing his and Jamie's plates to take to the table.

Things with Aria and James just felt natural. They always had.

After dinner, the trio settled into bed; Aria had brought James his pyjamas and his stuffed dog, along with a pair of pyjama pants for herself. Ezra knew she was going to take one of his shirts, that was pretty much a given.

"I hope Rex is okay." James said sleepily as he cuddled in between Aria and Ezra. His eyes were already drooping; he'd had a long day, filled with excitement and both Aria and Ezra knew it was only a matter of time before he drifted off to sleep.

Aria played with his hair soothingly. "Grandma and Grandpa are taking good care of him, don't worry."

James nodded and curled up into a ball, letting out a small yawn.

"Okay. Good."

Aria and Ezra stayed silent for a handful of minutes, just staring into each other's eyes while Jamie fell asleep.

No conversation was necessary. The silence said everything.

They were both lost in their own minds, waiting in order to talk. Once James was out, he was out like a light. The boy could sleep through a tornado.

Aria bit her lip, lost in Ezra's eyes. She was thinking about earlier in the day, when she'd taken that pregnancy test.

For a second she thought she'd wanted the kid. Another chance to do things right. Logically, she knew that wasn't an option right now, what with her new job and just patching things up with Ezra. Instead, she'd have the new Cavanaugh baby to dote on.

Whether or not to tell Ezra, that was the question.

Ezra on the other hand, was waiting for the perfect moment to ask.

It'd been on his mind all day. He knew that she'd probably say yes, but he was nervous about it anyways. He thought back to when the idea had first popped into his head, and the certainty that this was one thing he could do, something that had been left for him to fill even after Aria had left.

His eyes drifted down to James, who was fast asleep. His breathing even, his eyes were still. He was definitely out for the night.

"Aria, I have something to ask you." He whispered.

A confused expression came across her face, but she tilted her head, indicating for him to continue.

"You told me that James has no godfather, and that you thought that it was for me to decide, right?" She nodded. "Well, I was thinking if Hardy could be the godfather. Just seeing how he is with James… It brings out another side in him, and there's no one else I trust more. I mean, I know he's known Caleb and Toby longer, and if you're not okay with it-"

She cut him off with a smile.

"No, I can tell that Hardy is good for him. 'Uncle Hardy' kind of gave it away. Sure, that sounds perfect to me." She whispered.

Very carefully, Ezra moved his arm over James, and reached over to stroke her face.

"Thank you for that."

"No problem."

His thumb lingered on her cheek, feeling the smooth, cool surface of her skin. He loved the feeling; even at night when they were apart if he closed his eyes and focused, he could still feel that feeling. His eyes drifted down to her lips, which were parted slightly.

God she was beautiful, there wasn't a woman alive who could compare, he was sure of it.

When his eyes found their way back to hers, he could see something was wrong.

"Say it." He whispered. There was no sense in pretending there wasn't something on her mind.

Aria closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

"I took a pregnancy test today."

Ezra's eyes widened, it felt like the air had been sucked out of him.

Aria shook her head. "It wasn't positive; I was just concerned, what with me being late, and sick for the past couple days. But I just thought that I should tell you. Honesty and all." Her free hand travelled up the length of his arm, settling on top of his. "I don't want to be keeping secrets, or omitting anything from you."

Ezra exhaled in relief. Truthfully the idea scared the shit out of him. He and Aria were always careful when having sex; they had one kid, and Ezra was just getting used to that. Judging from the last time, they needed to be safer than normal.

"It just…" Aria started, but faltered. She took a second to gather her thoughts before continuing. "I am really, really, in love with you Ezra. Things are falling back into place, and sometimes it feels like I never left, you know? Like this has always been the way things are."

"I know. I feel the same way."

Aria let out a quick burst of air. "I'm glad we're on the same page. It's kind of scary, sometimes."

"Sometimes, yeah, it is." Ezra smiled, feeling her rub circles on the back of his palm. "But worth it. Thank you for telling me, I appreciate your honesty. Really."

The knot in her stomach lessened. It was nice, being able to be so open with someone again. After years of lying about A, and then to people about James, or to herself, Ezra felt like a breath of fresh air. He was liberating, and for just a couple moments, she could feel the tension in her body lessen.

She thought about telling him about Spencer, but stopped. She'd reveal it on her own time, and that was one secret she was sure Ezra wouldn't be mad at her for keeping.

She leaned over to kiss him, but realized there was no way to do so without bumping into James.

"Tomorrow." She whispered, contentedly. There would be a tomorrow with Ezra. And a day after that. And a day after that.

"Tomorrow."

**Pretty much anything I've needed to say I put in the author's note on my profile, but in case you didn't read it, basically thank you so much for sticking with this story, and I will not give up on it. Drop a review guys, yell at me for not updating in so long, say hi, anything. I'd love your feedback, seriously!**

**Xx Maddie**


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